Upper’s Committee Focuses on Improving Roads

PETERSBURG – Upper Township Committee met Sept. 9 and recognized several residents and organizations for their civic achievements.
Wanda Adamson and Rebecca Holden were commended for volunteer efforts as members of the Upper Township Green Team Advisory Committee.
William Joseph Mack III was honored for attaining the Eagle Scout designation. The Marmora ShopRite was recognized for its program of “Shoprite Partners in Caring” and its store associates for their efforts against hunger.
Committee spent a significant portion of the session discussing plans for its 2016 street paving project. 
Township Engineer Paul Dietrich reported that he anticipated most of the streets that will fall under the project would be resurfaced.
However, after he inspected the roads in question, “I saw that many of them were in seriously deteriorated condition and are in need of total reconstruction rather than just repaving,” said Dietrich. “Therefore the cost has gone up, but we can remove some of the streets that are scheduled just for repaving, so we don’t go over,” he advised.
“Any roads we remove for repaving this year, that could include North Sunset Drive, East Sunset Drive and three streets adjacent to Elmwood Avenue will be the first ones added to our 2017 repaving program,” he concluded.
Dietrich continued his explanation of the state of Upper’s roads by noting that the township has agreed to explore with New Jersey American Water (NJAW) the possibility of paving some of Strathmere’s streets.
This would remove the municipality from performing the work and also envisions that the school district would include the paving project with other engineering work, such as repaving of its parking lot that the township is doing for them at the middle school.
“Since NJAW has recently installed mains on some of Strathmere’s roads, they need to reconstruct 12 streets. The work will include milling roadway, laying asphalt and paving curb to curb,” explained Dietrich. Mayor Richard Palombo added, “If the paving can hold for five to eight years it will give us time to complete other projects we want to do now and plan for the future.
“People have been waiting a long time for their streets to be repaved, so I really don’t want to take anything off the list.”
Solicitor Daniel Young advised that the township needs to make certain that any combined project with the school district is allowed under state purchasing laws.
He added that the Upper Township Board of Education would have to commit to paying for it beforehand.
“It’s a great idea, we just need to follow the process,” Palombo said while Committee member Hobart Young alerted the group that it will not be long before the parking lot at Caldwell Park needs to be repaved.
Committee member John Coggins reported that Upper recently completed mandatory reviews of audits of its various local fire department audits, and there were no findings in any of the reports.
There were several items related to shared service agreements on the agenda listed for closed session. They included contract negotiations for a shared services agreement with Cape May County for fleet maintenance and a shared services agreement with Egg Harbor Township for equipment washing.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.