Posted on September 22, 2020
Tuckerton Borough Council has listened to many complaints from some residents of Tuckerton Beach on the slow response to requests to dredge their lagoons. After the borough’s attempt to get a water quality grant from the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection to do the dredging with bonding from the Infrastructure Trust Bank was denied, the council has turned to the residents to let them decide whether to pay for it themselves through a special assessment or wait for another grant opportunity to come along – perhaps through the N.J. Department of Transportation.
The council divided the waterfront properties into three areas: east and west of South Green Street in Tuckerton Beach, and Paradise Cove, which includes Thompson Creek.
During the Sept. 8 municipal meeting, Business Administrator Jenny Gleghorn said the borough will be sending out letters that include the breakdown of costs by the borough engineer and the estimate of how much the assessment would add to waterfront owners’ tax bills. The first letter is going to the waterfront residents on the east side of South Green Street in Tuckerton Beach. That breakdown is also on the tuckertonborough.com website. The cost to dredge is broken up by how many homes there are in each section.
On the east of South Green Street there are 412 properties; the estimated cost to dredge the mouths and high spots of the five lagoons is $2,871,500. When divided by the properties, the cost is $6,969.66. Property owners could pay the total assessment at once; pay $696.97 annually for 10 years; or pay $58.08 a month (quarterly would be $174.24 added to the tax bill) for 10 years. A taxpayer who owns more than one property would pay for each property.
Residents can return their yea or nay vote to the clerk’s office at 420 East Main St. or email the response found on the website to jgleghorn@tuckertonborough.com. The deadline to respond is Sept. 30.
If a property owner does not respond, the vote will be counted as a yea.
Property owners on the west side of Tuckerton Beach have a less expensive dredging cost, but there are fewer homes to share the burden. For those on the west side of South Green Street, the cost is estimated at $1,077,500, divided by 165 waterfront homeowners, or $6,530.30 each. They could pay the whole amount at once; $653.03 annually for 10 years; or $54.42 monthly ($163.26 quarterly). Yea or nay votes have the same deadline, Sept. 30.
The residents of Paradise Cove, however, have the highest burden to meet because of Thompson Creek. The long, winding tidal creek has silt in many places and would have to be dredged, as well as the two lagoons; this is estimated to cost $4,198,500.
There are only 89 homes to share this cost. It would be $47,174.16 for each waterfront property owner. If paid annually, the additional tax would be $4,717.42 for 10 years; monthly, $393.12 for 10 years; or $1,179.36 quarterly for 10 years.
The residents should voice their opinions by Sept. 30, the same as above. If the property owner does not respond, it will be counted as a yes vote.
Gleghorn said the borough will continue to look for grants, but that would further delay the dredging, perhaps past 2021.
She did not like speaking for the council but said the state is running at a deficit, and money is tight. “Do we sit around and wait? So let’s put it to a vote.”
Gleghorn also said the estimates are high and based on having to truck the dredge material to a confined dredge facility. Also, the Paradise Cove residents would have a fight to get the state to declare Thompson Creek a navigable waterway, in which case the state would be responsible for dredging.
Mayor Sue Marshall said even once the votes are counted, the public still can weigh in on the dredging issue until the council passes resolutions. “This is a way of doing things rather than twiddling our thumbs.”
The council had originally planned to hold a town-wide meeting on the dredging issue and also have the option of having the entire town take on the dredging as a capital project, but that meeting was postponed indefinitely by the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.
Two other waterfront projects are moving ahead. Albert Marine has started work on the revetment and shoreline project at the end of Little Egg Harbor Boulevard in Tuckerton Beach. The stone revetment will begin at the end of the boulevard, curve out toward the disappearing marsh, and follow along the peninsula to the end. The DEP is doing the work with grant money.
Mayor Marshall said she had been down to the project earlier in the day and saw the equipment. “They said they would start today and they did!” She said it will probably be completed in two months, before the onset of winter.
The project to stop the silt from entering Kingfisher Lagoon from the unused Lanyard Lagoon is also moving forward. This is also being completed by a grant, but required more bureaucracy because Lanyard Lagoon is now owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is part of the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.
The refuge manager, Virginia Rettig, has said she favors a plan that will stop the silt but not close off the tidal flow as wildlife utilizes the waterway. Once the required environmental and hydrological assessments are done, the report should be done by Oct. 2. Gleghorn said Borough Engineer Greg Kuri has been doing soundings from his kayak.
In other news, two police officers were hired to replace one officer who resigned and another who is on leave after being shot at during a manhunt last year.
Stephen Taylor Adams was hired as a patrolman; Matthew Joseph Pedrick was sworn in as a class 2 special officer.
The borough council authorized a shared service agreement for dispatch with Little Egg Harbor Police Department that includes a yearly 3 percent increase. The cost is $91,362.87 for fiscal year 2020.
The old borough hall at 140 East Main St. is going to be put out to bid as a rental, adding some revenue to the town.
During the public comment period, John Edmonds was back to ask for help enforcing the 25 mph speed limit on Center Street between Route 9 and Oak Lane. He has met with the county engineers and said they are performing a traffic study of Center Street and will most likely be erecting weight limit signs to keep trucks from using the narrow residential street. The last time a study was done was in 2008, when 2,600 vehicles were counted in a 12- hour period, said Edmonds.
“How would you like to have 2,600 cars speeding by your house?” he asked. Edmonds said Little Egg Harbor police have been seen on Center Street where it crosses into their jurisdiction, but not Tuckerton police.
Tuckerton Beach resident Chris Voltz said her taxes have gone up $6,000 in five years to $13,500 for a four-bedroom, 2½-bath home and she can’t understand how her taxes could go up so far while there are many new constructions in the beach that should be sharing the tax burden.
Gleghorn said assessments are based on market value, and the municipal tax is only a quarter of the total tax. Most goes to the two school districts.
The borough has gone back to meeting twice a month in person on the first and third Monday of each month at 7 p.m. in the new borough hall, 430 E. Main St. Social distancing and masks are required
Source: thesandpaper
