West Cape May Hires Firm to Search for Missing Water

WEST CAPE MAY — Borough Commission approved a professional services contract with Edens Revenue Recovery Associates to conduct a study to try to discover why West Cape May is losing up to 45 percent of the water it purchases from the City of Cape May.
Commissioner Ramsey Geyer complained at a March 23 borough commission meeting that he hadn’t seen a copy of Edens Revenue Recovery Associates proposal before it was scheduled for a vote. He said the firm seemed to be geared more towards finding accounting errors than locating leaks in pipes.
Commissioner Peter Burke said he had no seen any proposals until the meeting.
Mayor Pamela Kaithern said Edens had a relationship with an engineering firm that would handle that aspect of the work. She the firm did “forensic accounting.”
The mayor said the contract was not to exceed $15,000 which was below the threshold that requires bidding for the contract. She said Eden would begin looking at the accounting of the borough’s water.
“It seems to me the issues that have been brought up are physical issues not forensic accounting issues,” said Geyer.
He said he didn’t want the borough to spend $15,000 for the firm to look at the borough’s water accounting system if the problem was leaks.
Kaithern said the scope of work would go beyond accounting but did not include looking for leaks. She said through the process of elimination and “consulting with these professionals, the consensus is it is not a true water loss.”
Kaithern said if the borough was losing the amount of water that has been estimated it would be consistent quarter to quarter and that amount of water leaking from a pipe would be visible.
Commissioner Peter Burke said if there were about 1,000 residences or buildings in the borough with 800 connected to the water system, leaving about 200 dwellings or one-fifth not connected, “The loss is so great that the one-fifth couldn’t use that amount of water and account for this.”
Geyer said conclusions were being made before any study had been undertaken. Burke said the cost would be very high to investigation infrastructure leaks.
Kaithern said if nothing is found in the accounting end of the equation, phase B would be to look at pipes which is another specialty. She said using forensic accounting was the logical and least costly next step.
During public comment, resident Kathy Gallagher said West Cape May resident Ed Belsky was a director at Edens Revenue Recovery Associates and a manager at Van Cleef Engineering. Belsky has been working on a free basis for the borough on permit applications to the state Department of Environmental Protection to convert a borough-owned property on Sunset Boulevard into a municipal parking lot.
Gallagher said she had no problem with West Cape May using Edens but questioned why the borough was paying Edens $15,000 when borough resident and engineer Alan Mitchell volunteered to do the work free of charge.
Kaithern said she did not believe Mitchell was a licensed engineer in New Jersey and was a part time resident of the borough. She said she has been working on the proposals with Public Works Manager Rob Flynn and Water/Sewer Supervisor David Carrick Jr. and all agreed an independent third party was needed.
Kaithern said she initially did not know Belsky was associated with Edens and Van Cleef.
“That firm stood out as very competent…” she said.
Burke said it was the first time that he had heard about Belsky’s involvement with Edens. He said he attended a social event with Belsky on the previous Saturday night but Belsky did not mention his involvement with Edens or the proposal.
Borough Solicitor Christine Cote said Belsky’s name doesn’t appear in Edens’ proposal. She said Belsky didn’t seem to be involved in the project at all.