Avalon Council Approves Committee for Floodplain Management Plan

AVALON – Avalon Borough Council held its work session and regular meeting Oct. 15.
The work session began with a presentation on plans for landscape work at 30th Street, driven in part by the proposed installation of a large, new, steel pole that will carry Atlantic City Electric transmission lines. The installation of the pole, for which the borough approved an easement, will result in a series of alterations at the Chamber of Commerce site.
The plans presented to council call for reconstruction of the community event sign, moving the existing flag pole, along with removal of one street light and replacing it with two new lights.  The plans also call for a tree removal and the planting of new trees and shrubs.
One issue that did come up during public comment was raised by Martha Wright who asked council to “lead by example” and ensure that trees and shrubs planted are indigenous species.
Council was also urged to have Environmental Commission look at the plans to ensure that appropriate native species of plants are used.
Super Storm Sandy Relief Funding
In a show-and-tell moment, council members got to see the mountain of paperwork that must be produced in order to successfully file for disaster relief funding, involving Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state agencies. A portion of counter space stretching the length of five chairs was piled with papers and notebooks representing only the claims for borough public works for Sandy. The pile did not include paperwork related to emergency departments, like police or fire, and also excluded beach areas.
Almost exactly three years after the storm, council got a view of the enormous effort that borough officials have to expend in order to seek relief when major storms and blizzards damage property and assets.  The pile displayed represented $1.6 million in relief claims for one borough department.
Floodplain Management Plan
Following the presentation on storm relief funding, council turned its attention to the preparation of a new floodplain management plan for the borough. Business Administrator Scott Wahl explained that the borough was seeking to develop its own plan separate from the county plan that is also being redeveloped.
According to Wahl, the ability to fine tune a plan, specifically for the borough, could potentially improve the CSR rating, earning the borough residents a 30 percent discount rate instead of the current 25 percent rate. The 25 percent rate is at present the highest in the county.
Wahl emphasized the large amount of work that needed to be done in the next “10 to 11 weeks” and he asked council to approve the creation of a community-wide committee to develop the plan.
The 12 names proposed for the committee include six officials from the borough and six residents.  They will be supported by other non-voting individuals, including the borough engineer and the CSR coordinator.
The clear goal is to maintain the borough’s current designation as a class 5 community and to strive to achieve an even higher level of designation and discount rate.
At the regular meeting following the work session, council did pass the resolution setting up the committee.
New Assessment Level Achieved
Wahl informed council that the borough had increased its tax assessment base by $49 million in the last year, due largely to the increased value associated with new construction. The increase was the second largest in the county, trailing only Ocean City with its much larger property base.
The increase brings the borough’s ratables to $7.42 billion dollars spread over a land base of just over 4-square miles.
Dredging
Wahl noted that the borough was making a concerted effort to address the regulatory environment that delays or prevents dredging in the bay areas. Meeting with state officials in Trenton this week will be followed by a meeting in Washington, DC with Representative LoBiondo and federal regulatory agencies.
The team, led by Mayor Martin Pagliughi and Freeholder Marie Hayes, is pushing a “science-based’ approach to make it easier to deal with dredging projects in the state’s coastal communities. Pagliughi stated that the group’s overall goal is “a uniform permitting process and a science-based approach to protect the environment.”
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.