Town Bank Water Main Project Advances to Bayshore Road

VILLAS — Water main installation on Breakwater Road should be completed this week as part of expansion of municipal water service into the Town Bank area.
Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) Executive Director Matt Ecker updated commission members on progress of the Town Bank project at an April 6 meeting. He said the next phase of the project would see water mains exiting the MUA plant driveway and heading north on Bayshore Road.
That work will run until the end of April, advancing towards Wildwood Avenue, he said.
Ecker said the work crew from Pioneer Pipe wanted to finish Breakwater and Bayshore roads before the summer season. During May, the crew plans to work on Wildwood Avenue and Clubhouse Drive.
Ecker said it is possible two crews will come on board to speed up the work with one crew working north from Townbank Road and another crew working south from Wildwood Avenue. One crew consists of approximately 15 workers, he said.
“They do all the milling and paving like a continuous train,” said Ecker. “I’ve been pretty impressed with their work so far.”
He said their progress has been slowed by bad weather.
MUA Commissioner Joseph Mento asked when the authority would need to take the second installment of a $12 million loan for the Town Bank project.
Ecker said that hinged on completion and permitting of a new well, Well 8.
“Until that gets permitted as a public supply well and until we increase our allocation, we don’t have state approval to extend the mains to serve the individual homes,” he said.
When Well 8 is complete and MUA’s allocation permit is modified by the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), in theory that would allow completion of all the Town Bank construction, said Ecker. At that time, MUA will seek short term financing on the remaining $6 million.
When the project is complete in three or four years, MUA will go to a loan closing the USDA to switch to a 40-year loan and no longer operate from short term financing, said Ecker.
During public comment, Carolina Avenue resident Robert Miller asked when municipal water would be available on his street. Ecker said it was a difficult question to answer “because the water that we need to supply the residents of Lower Township, who don’t have water now, is considered to be an asset of the State of New Jersey.”
“It’s not our water,” he said. “We have the means to deliver it, we have the wells to supply it but we need approval from the state to get additional water allocation to provide the residents who don’t already have water.”
Ecker said MUA was in the process of seeking additional water allocation and he hoped those approvals would be granted by the end of the year.
After the allocation is increased, MUA must make application to extend the water mains and provide the service.
MUA Solicitor Jeff Barnes said a major modification request was made to DEP in order to get a water allocation. He said the amount of the water allocation was “out of the hands” of MUA and would be determined by a third party entity.
Another aspect is financing further expansion, said Ecker, noting MUA was expending $12 million to install water mains in Town Bank. He said MUA has a fixed connection fee and does not have the ability as costs increase to recover its costs.
Barnes said there would be some lag time from the time the Town Bank project is completed until MUA sees an economic benefit since property owners do not immediately connect to the system.