CREST HAVEN – “We are trying to get an unmanned aerial vehicle launched in this county,” Freeholder Will Morey reported to peers at the Jan. 13 board meeting.
Commonly referred to as drones, unmanned aerial vehicles will get another proposed window of opportunity to get off the ground Jan. 27-29 at Coast Guard Training Center Cape May.
Morey acknowledged “It’s all about safety checks,” and added that it won’t be known until 48 hours prior if those test flights will take place.
“If the weather is not really great, it isn’t going,” said Morey, adding “That energy is moving along, it’s frustrating to me.”
Morey, who oversees economic development, has been a proponent of drone testing, centered at the county airport, as a potential economic boon to the area for employment. The location is attractive to drone testing being close to the ocean and bay.
With thoughts on the county airport, Morey also told the board Delaware River and Bay Authority has approved a 30,000-square-foot building at the airport. He said “it appears it will be up and completed in the third quarter of the year.”
Rio Site for Family Planning
Freeholder Kristine Gabor, director of Health and Human Services, announced that a family planning facility will be located in leased space at 4011 Route 9 South, Suite 201 Rio Grande, owned by Cape Regional Health Enterprises. The one-year lease will be used for family planning clinical services once a week for four-hour periods. The lease was retroactive to Jan. 1.
An initial proposal to utilize the Lower Township Senior Center, after seniors left for the day, as a site for family planning activities, but seniors opposed the move, hence the latest movement to nearby Rio Grande.
Gabor said the family planning center in the county Health Department in Crest Haven may be difficult for some to visit, and “we are required to provide them the service,” she said.
In other action the board:
Appointed Conrad Johnson Jr. as county fire marshal for one year, ending Jan. 15, 2016.
Named James B. Arsenault Jr. as Ethics Liaison Officer for the county. The enabling resolution noted that the county…”requires strict adherence to ethics in government; and…the freeholders…recognize the vitality and stability of representative democracy depend upon the public’s confidence in the integrity of its elected and appointed representatives.”
Passed a resolution urging the Legislature to enact casino gambling property tax relief legislation in part because “of the importance the casino industry to the entire South Jersey region…”
Awarded contract for $58,240 to Jersey Cape Diagnostic Training and Opportunity Center to collect recyclables from county facilities through Dec. 31, 2015.
Reappointed Alice Washington as a member of the Board of Social Services for five years expiring Dec. 31, 2019.
Awarded contract to L.A. Hair Inc., of Langhorne, Pa., for cosmetology services to residents of Crest Haven Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
Designated the Department of Tourism as single point of contact for advertising and communications for all county departments. That department is headed by Diane Wieland.
Authorized open-end agreement with Comcast Spotlight, Inc. for various advertising for all county departments for one year effective Jan. 1, 2015.
Appointed Dennis Roberts to Pollution Control Financing Authority with term expiring Feb. 1, 2020.
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
