WOODBINE – Woodbine Borough Council members heard a presentation by Dennis Yap, CEO of DY Consultants April 20.
He has been working with the borough for over 26 years on its engineering planning and design needs as they pertain to aviation and airports.
“You were my first client, I learned a lot by doing these early jobs with Woodbine,” Yap said with a smile.
The impetus behind Yap’s briefing was the official transfer of the Municipal Airport (Port Authority) to Woodbine as a formal department and what lies in store for the facility.
“I’m optimistic that we will continue to see the variety of funding we’ve received continue and that having the airport under Woodbine supervision will be a process of saving dollars and cents,” commented Mayor William Pikolycky.
Yap reviewed some projects for the council that had recently been funded or soon will be that support airport operations.
Funding has come from either the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) or the state-level Department of Transportation. “We have a great relationship with both FAA and NJDOT (state Department of Transportation), and we need to work with them to ensure we can use any funding, including ‘entitlement’ funding in the best way possible.
“Many of these grants come with significant ‘sponsorship’ requirements, i.e. we need to kick in funding as well, and we need relief, or we will blow our municipal budget for some of these projects,” said Pikolycky.
“I’m always surprised by what Woodbine asks for and then gets, so I think while there are definitely challenges there’s reason to be hopeful,” responded Yap.
The projects that are well underway or completed at the Woodbine Airport include obstruction removal and taxiway crack repair for $353,000; replacement of a ceilometer, which is instrumentation to gauge wind, visibility and cloud coverage for pilots for almost $47,000; and a feasibility study for helicopter parking apron at almost $67,000.
“These and other grants we have in the pipeline are not 100 percent grants, so we’ll be working very closely with FAA and NJDOT for relief and so we can move forward,” noted Pikolycky.
Yap explained that FAA deems the Woodbine Airport a “public use facility.” There are certain grant assurances that must be given before funding is released, such as compliance with environmental, record maintenance and other FAA operational standards.
“Our airport has limited revenue such as renting hangar space and maybe some economic development effect on restaurants when weekend pilots use the facility.
“We’ve been able to maintain it better than most general aviation airports in the country, all built around World War II, and we will meet any new challenges that come our way to fund needed projects,” said Pikolycky.
2017 Municipal Budget
Council approved the borough’s budget for 2017 with a total spending plan of about $2.4 million, which remains under the 2 percent cap. That includes, for the first time, the budgets for the Woodbine Utility Department and the Airport Department which are now within the municipal administration.
Woodbine’s budget is augmented by $3 million in federal and state grants. “I’m pleased to report that for the 27th consecutive year our local purpose tax rate remains steady. The rate is at $0.234 cents per $100 assessed value, the same as 2016. This means that a property assessed at $100,000 would pay $234 in Local Purpose Tax. I also want to point out that we retain just $412,000 of our total tax levy which is about 16 percent. That means that only 16 cents of every tax dollar we collect actually stays in the borough,” said Pikolycky.
Capital projects approved and underway include: $3 million water improvement projects; approximately $2 million road reconstruction; $750,000 for Open Space Park and pedestrian/bikeways project; approximately $400,000 upgrade of Head Start facility; $500,000 for Airport runway rehabilitation.
Grass Clippings
Pikolycky said Public Works would no longer pick up grass clippings that are not properly disposed of in a container.
“Some property owners, or their landscaping contractors, are leaving the clippings in the street. This is a violation of their proper disposal since, if they are not contained, they get into storm water infrastructure and cause lots of problems.
“We’re sending letters to offending property owners and will hand deliver the same letter to contractors, so everyone knows why we’re doing this. We have a municipal ordinance with fines on this issue and will begin to use that if we have to,” he explained.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.
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