STONE HARBOR – The Borough Council has tabled a resolution supporting feasibility studies of a stormwater utility, the creation of which is viewed as one way for the borough to fund flood mitigation efforts and ease the pressure on its budget.
The reason council member Victor Foschini gave for the tabling, which happened at the council’s Sept. 17 meeting, was the absence of council member Frank Dallahan.
When on Sept. 3 Mayor Judith Davies-Dunhour asked council members if they were ready to vote to move ahead with the studies at the next meeting, there was no dissent. Why the absence of Dallahan on Sept. 17 was cause to table the resolution was not clear.
Stone Harbor has long considered the potential benefits of a stormwater utility as an answer to how the borough will fund flood mitigation efforts. The utility would be a separate and self-financing entity of municipal government that could provide a stream of revenue for dealing with the negative impacts of stormwater runoff and for support of other projects.
The borough’s 2024 budget allocated $375,000 for the feasibility studies. The Stone Harbor Property Owners Association came out strongly in support of the studies.
The borough had previously applied for a state grant to fund such studies but failed to be selected. It appeared the governing body was set to embark on them with borough funding.
Then, in July, the council’s utilities committee recommended that the studies be postponed for a year. Council member Robin Casper, who chairs the committee, said the borough should see what other towns in the state are doing before embarking on something so new as a stormwater utility.
Borough Administrator Manny Parada said that as of now only one municipality in the state, New Brunswick, has an active stormwater utility. Roughly 50 other New Jersey municipalities are doing the requisite studies and evaluating whether such a utility is useful in their circumstances.
But at the September meeting of the council, Parada gave a presentation that reignited the sense that moving ahead now with the studies rather than waiting a year was the most prudent approach.
The new variable was the arrival of a new chief financial officer, Cynthia Lindsay, who brought to public light the problem the borough has with the state appropriations cap, giving new appreciation to the way a stormwater utility can absorb certain expenses from an overburdened general budget.
By the end of the Sept. 3 meeting, the council appeared ready to approve moving forward with the studies, expected at the Sept. 17 meeting.
Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.
