WOODBINE – The Borough Council met June 16. Municipal Engineer Bruce Graham gave a briefing on the progress of Phase I of the municipality’s Eco-Park under county Open Space funding of $480,000 at the site of the elementary school.
“We’ll be enlarging the multi-purpose field behind the school, improve the playground there, as well as drains and sidewalks. We’ll also be turning a ‘bio-retention basin’ into a real rain garden,” explained Graham.
“The next step is permitting, and the most time-consuming permit will be that from the Pinelands Commission. They are usually most concerned with storm water run-off and drainage, and I think we’re good in that category. We’re not putting in any bathrooms, so we don’t have that issue.
“Stockton graduate environmental students who helped do some research regarding the site did not find any endangered or threatened species so we are expecting that won’t be an issue either. The site encompasses about seven acres and eventually we may need to clear about two acres,” continued Graham.
Mayor William Pikolycky asked Graham if, when applying for permitting, he intended to include the entire project or just Phase 1. That is the only phase that currently is funded; “It will be a much easier lift if we have permitting for Phases II and III at the same time when we go to the county for follow-on funding,” stated Pikolycky. “I was thinking of just asking for Phase I but you make a good point to include all phases since we’re not intending to make a major change to the master plan we already have,” agreed Graham.
Station Upgrade Advances
Council unanimously approved a resolution to move forward to conclude the contract for the Woodbine State Police station ballistics upgrade. It has been placed for bids at the request of the state as well as the troopers.
“The bid was well within the budget the state gave us and their guidelines. We received four bids all under budget; two were for the $70,000-$80,000 range, another was for $59,000 and the winning bid from BWN Inc. of Gibbstown was $50,900,” announced Pikolycky.
COAH: “Big Mess”
Borough Solicitor Richard Tonetta reported on the latest state-of-play regarding COAH (Council on Affordable Housing) rules, and specifically as they apply to non-residential fees municipalities have been collecting.
“As background, the state Supreme Court threw out COAH regulations as being ‘unconstitutional’ and asked COAH to come up with new regulations which they did, but these were rejected by the court in 2015.
“Then the court said it would take control of administering COAH obligations. Meanwhile, municipalities have been collecting fees, including the non-residential development fee from builders, but it’s not clear if they can spend it because the court has not issued clear guidance.
“However, if these monies are not spent, the court is saying they should be returned to COAH. Vineland, for example, is caught in this situation where they have $1 million in the bank, but they’re afraid to spend it if the court is going to require them to pay it back. But as I mentioned if they don’t spend it they may lose it if the court requires them to give it to COAH. So the situation really is a big mess and will continue this way until the court shakes everything out,” said Tonetta.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.
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?
