AP Council Meeting February 16, 2011 - See You in Court

Asbury Park City Council Meeting, Feb 16, 2011

See You in Court were the words on everyone's lips tonight as the meeting ended about 8:30 pm after raising the City's Fire Prevention Fees and passing a resolution to join the NJ Intergovernmental Insurance Fund, and hopefully half our deductibles to the savings tune of $300k. Court is Judge Lawson's chambers tomorrow at 11 AM in Freehold; High Noon for Asbury Park's litigators to stand down billion dollar Goliath iStar Financial. At stake is not a beautiful blonde like Grace Kelly, but 50 plus acres of prime New Jersey Oceanfront. Yours truly hopes to be there.
In other business John Loffredo and Sue Henderson will be chair and co-chair of the Waterfront Redevelopment Advisory Committee. And the Oceanfront Preservation Coalition presented arguments for a resolution by the City to allow "Project Areas" on the lakes bordering the oceanfront.
Welcome to the Asbury Radio's Reporter's Notebook

Where you the reader must try to decipher the weary key thrashings of tired old ink-stained hack. Feel free to send corrections, spellings, etc. to AsburyRadio@aol.com

Council Present:

Councilmembers Susan Henderson, Dep. Mayor John Loffredo, Mayor Ed Johnson, Kevin Sanders, and James Bruno Clerk: Steven Kay

I’m late 6:54 pm, after hunting down baddies in muni bond market

Tom Gilmour is speaking about future events…

Peter Avakian – Deal Lake and Wesley Lake Engineer

Deal Lake – thank u for apptg councilwoman Henderson to commission

$50k grant from state to Deal Lake/ pollutant phosphorous in lake, can install chemicals or equipment/ Comstock and two in ocean twp place it on storm water drain / enormous amount of debris along that way…storm wtr flow go thru unit, chamber remove floatables, another for..another for chemicals. Just here to let you know w/ supply tremendous benefit to you. We’re trying to be proactive…prob cost $100k when done, all to be borne by storm grant…structure easily maintained and managed. Mem’l drive runs under 6th ave/ may hv to go into sys and stop debris before gets there /

SH – at no cost to the city, Rita, no cost at all.

PA – jst so u know, mfr’s oper manual w/ be provided, suggest a 6 mos cleaning.

Christine – CFO – little glitch this yr due to weather/ printing, veh main., clayton press the one bidder $1775. same as lst yr/ veh main 2 bids/ seacoast and troppoli /and Waste collection, hrly down fr lst yr by $5. now 44.75/hr now at Troppoli, which going with. Tristate is lower bidder than DeLisa, but $11 more than tonnage from lst yr/ TriState Won over DeLisa.

City Manager Terrance Reidy: Update redev area / t’w 11 am judge lawson’s chambers city in court against our former …developer/ I invite you to come/ public hearing/

James Famularo – School lighting…Moscow(?) Lighting, install Quality Electric W. Keansburg /

Matters introd’d by city council –

SH – invited a.p.h.s. students to partake in meeting, called them up to take seats at table facing audience. Six students: 4 young women, 2 young men

JL:Driver for senior bus - ?

Valentine’s party is the 18th…for senior citizens.

Proposal for north side of convention hall, 6:30 evenings/ wd set up and brk down

EJ – sat 11 – 2, senior valentine’s party/ pls come out mayor’s wellness campaign at same time/ at transportation center/

Student Council Advisor and Guidance Counselor to APHS Bryan Hackett.

Student Council Important Voice in our school…

Introduces Ms. Carla Sinclair, 9th grade Guidance Counselor also serving as chaperone for tonight/ Hackett introduces the students: Alyssa Figueroa, secretary, Tiara Levers, president, Raheem Scott-Griffith, vice president, Tamara Gabriel, council member, Marquis Martin, council member, and Monique Johnson, council member. They present plaque to mayor/

SH – I’ve a lot of faith in these kids, she presents them with their own gavel. The student council will swing gavel to open city council meeting.

Council maybe tkg action on one item addressed exec session

Proposal from insurance fund – nj intergovernmental insurance fund …for period …cd not keep up, sorry.

Public Comment Portion

Joe Miro – 109 mccabe av, Bradley beach –

I am cochair of surfrider fdn, nj chptr/ also part of Oceanfront Preservation Coalition…assoc. we suggest council pass resolution regarding north Asbury beachfront, supports oceanfront park. See http://www.saveasburypark.com He read from a document that said in part: "The Oceanfront Preservation Coalition will have no choice but to move forward with its public and active campaign to preserve open space on the City's North Beach, if the City of Asbury Park is unable to move forward with a Green Acres 'Project Area' resolution and application for properties in Asbury Park involving Deal Lake and Wesley Lake as well as any properties that may become available on the oceanfront."  Will pass such a resolution? 

EJ – we’ll certainly consider it yes.

Dan Debiro, AP – member surfrider fdn oceanfront coalition

We hv documented obj to dev of north Asbury Park and clean ocean action, citizens for…,

Overwhelming turnout… w/ help city w/ app for green acres funding/ waterfront park for northbeach of ap, deal lake and Wesley lake/

EJ – pls give statement to city mgr please

Rita Marano – 9 adults and three children in hse that burned. Is that one family? Who’s maintaining boxing ring, who pays for police officer assigned, lighting We’re paying for all of that.

Famularo – Yes/ flood lighting was obsolete

RM – fence cost $25k / all paid by people we don’t have that money.

JM – we’re getting federal money/

RM - I don’t think Fed’l gove’t has any money either/ they’re telling us not to spend.

Jerry Scarano –

Congratulates students/ perfect ex why we shd hv council mtgs videotaped/

EJ- Hoping that’s something they(?) are going to do

Denise Richardson –

Pot holes she complained about last mtg were filled today. What’s update on west side? Is Lucas Bros back in full force?

Brian Grant – had se’v snow storms, contractor not full force yet, were tkg care of flooding there, wnt to stabilize that before proceed on dewitt. w/ issue schedule to pub end of next wek.

DR – no one said skeleton crew wd come bk in jan/ why wkg w/ skel crew? Process too long in the first place and skeleton crew not

BG –I can see you’re not familiar with process, let me educate you

DR – don’t down me like that

BG – don’t want to open sign part of proj with uncertain inclement weather

DR – should hv shared that education earlier in the process.

Myra Campbell AP – havne’t seen street cleaner/ understand…gone on to OG/ expect munis to get lawsuits, but also diff skill sets are there rules to minimize liability due to unskilled professionals

BG – street sweeper/ been out in full force, snow piles for over month, dumped many times the am’t normally do/

MC – my street hasn’t been swept since last spring

City Mgr Reidy – managerial training – variety we snd our people to/ ongoing training sessions bef even / as far as insur piece is concerned/ tonight gov bdy is going to pass legis putting city into jt insur fund, means for now we’re a standalone entity go out ea yr and compete for insur for city/ lst 4 or 5 yrs been lkg get into a jt insur fund/ w/ that w’ll get variety of svcs can’t ge ton own – how interact w/ public, fellow employees, 2011, expect city save min $300k by getting into fund/ ie deductibles, by using fund cutting all deductibles in half/ spks to broker wkg hard, city can mange its claims/ still too hi, but part of ins fund w/ rec’v what didn’t have before so thank you for quest

Reggie…Yoga Basin owner –

Summer beach passes? Is that city’s rev

Council – yes

Reg – more daily or wkly passes

TR – def daily

Reggie – 9 – 5? As business own in town experienced beach after 5/ saw citizens lined up waiting for life guards to leave so can use beach. Fathers coming out w/ 4 or 5 children holding onto them in surf. Maybe city could show apprec for residents by letting citizens on the bch the last hour, since daytrippers



Council – children are free

Reggie – just a though HS not free – 12 and above pay

Vernice McGriff – snow…mst fellas wkg tried to help us/ I’ve traveled in other parts of jersey, wherever hv urban areas going to find probs where need snow removal/ don’t thnk we had the worst situation here/ people in my neighborhood were tkn care of/ only thinkg/ perhaps one day we could announce this day we do east side, then…but mstpart can’t knock what was done/ when hv lot of people going to be diffi to remove… Going to the bch/ we hv our people our guards, if people…when I came here there were people didn’t even know we were near the bch/ we hv very economical price for bch/ u don’t hv to wait until aft 5 and put your children in jeopardy.
Edward Young - 1104 Pine St., AP

First want to congratulate James Famularo for mkg effort to show city does take interest in our kids/ can improve on area/ where hv recreation glad to do it/ often times when do u get criticized. I too hav good remarks for snow removal efforts/ second or third day after blizzard w did hv at least one pass w/ plows/ like to city h.s. kids think it’s very important.

Appv mtg feb 2nd, all except Bruno, who was absent, yes

Payroll resolution $855,175.86 2 wks/ Bd of Ed $1,939,800.

Raffles appr’d for churches and events as per Gilmour

Appts – dep mayor loffredo, council Henderson chair and co-chr of Waterfront Redev Advisory Comm

City Atty Fred Raffetto – advisory committee was to be selected by 2/16, understand u wnt more time to do that/ suggest u remove that restrictive date from the resolution/

All yes/

Competitive contract process for energy saving – introduced by BG during workshop/ all yes

Resolution accepting insurance proposal – all yes

Plumbing fees to be heard second mtg of March

Ordinance – Fire prevention fees / no audience comment

Onsight computer / troppoli not to exceed $75k,/ TriState carting not to exceed $55k

Quality Elec $46k/ all yes

Meeting Adjourned