Upper Mayor Irked Boat Ramp’s Not Ready

PETERSBURG – Upper Township Committee met May 30 and heard from Engineer Paul Dietrich the latest state-of-play regarding the former municipal building in Tuckahoe.
“Our consultant is working on putting together specifications so we can go out to bid for remediation of the asbestos issue in the building. Remediation must be done before we can consider using the property for any future purpose,” he explained.
“The best and most competitive pricing is not available in the summer for this type of work when schools are out, and they are looking to have their own asbestos remediation work done.
“So, we’re hoping to have the remediation work done in the fall and meanwhile have overall project ideas moving forward with architectural and design services for which the Historical Society has given us $10,000 as their share of these costs. Then, our plan is to come to Committee in December with proposal possibilities for a grant application to the County,” said Dietrich.
Tighten Purchases
Committee member John Coggins said he had been working with Chief Financial Officer Barbara Spiegel to do some spot checks in the municipality’s processes and found that for requisitions, the process was “not being used as it should.”
Spiegel clarified by noting, “The department requesting an item should go to the vendor for quotes for any purchase over $2,000 which then must be entered into our purchasing system for three separate approvals.
“This was not being done so we’ve fixed this,” Coggins added.
He said that with the coming of Business Manager Scott Morgan, the municipality was able to save $11,000 in the purchase of a generator through Morgan’s additional research. “We are doing better due diligence in this area,” said Coggins.
DOT Grant
“I have the best news of the evening,” declared Mayor Richard Palombo. He said that the township would be receiving $158,000 from the state Department of Transportation to continue finishing improvements along Commonwealth Avenue in Strathmere from the Deauville Inn along to the area of the Corson’s Inlet State Park. “This stretch is township property, not the county, and these are not matching funds, so we have the entire amount to complete the work,” he said.
911 Confusion
Committee member Curtis Corson raised the issue of the difficulty for emergency medical personnel to find a resident who calls from a cell phone and uses a mailing address instead of a physical address for location purposes.
Corson referred to the case of a resident who, at an earlier meeting, said he had to wait extra minutes for emergency medical personnel to reach him. That was because they thought, based on his ZIP code, he was calling from Dennis Township rather than Upper.
“Someone is going to die because of this issue. It’s really confusing, and not just an Upper problem but a countywide concern. ZIP codes should be municipal boundaries and not the way they are now.” Palombo said when calling 911 from a cell phone rather than a land line to state, “I am calling from Upper Township.”
He also said it might be time to revisit Upper’s quest, which went to several federal-level appeals, a few years ago to get its ZIP code changed and perhaps even to consider this as a Homeland Security issue and work with the appropriate elected officials.
Ramp Not Done
Committee asked Dietrich for an update on the improvements to the boat ramp and adjacent parking in Strathmere. 
“There was a misunderstanding between me and the contractor who was waiting for plants to arrive to finish up the parking lot at the same time. The ramp is useable, but everything such as curing the lot surface is not yet finished. Then he had to finish up some other work.”
“This is really starting to get annoying since we, in good faith, gave this contractor extra time back in December to get to work and have everything finished by Memorial Day,” said Palombo. “He needs to make this a priority and have our work completed now and not head off to other jobs.”
Palombo requested that Dietrich “Stay on top of this, we want this work to be done, he’s not meeting his deadlines so maybe we’ll need to get the solicitor involved.” 
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.