Posted on October 27, 2020
Waterfront residents living on the west side of South Green Street in Tuckerton Beach and those in Paradise Cove have received letters from the borough with information on their special dredging assessments and have also been invited to attend a remote Q and A session on Oct. 22 at 7 p.m.
The letters ask these residents to vote for or against the assessment to dredge their lagoons. The idea is for the council to get a feel for how much support is behind the push to dredge if the residents have to pay for it. West-siders in Tuckerton Beach would pay $164 per quarter for 10 years to have their lagoons dredged. Paradise Cove residents are asked if they would agree to pay $1,179 quarterly for 10 years for parts of their lagoons and Thompson Creek to be dredged. These residents have until the end of October to respond.
During the Oct. 19 Tuckerton Borough Council meeting, Daryl Mercantini of Tuckerton Beach asked why the letter wasn’t sent out in the summer when more people were at their homes. “They would like to know about a 10-year toothache,” he said. Business Administrator Jenny Gleghorn said the letters were sent to addresses on residents’ tax bills. If residents live someplace else in the off-season, they would still get the letter, she explained.
Mercantini also was opposed to the borough’s decision to count a non-reply as a yes vote. “It sets a pretty bad precedent. It’s arbitrary and deceitful.”
Gleghorn responded that the local government didn’t have to get public opinion on the issue and could impose a special assessment on anything it deems worthwhile. However, the vote was a courtesy, she said. “It’s not a binding document. It’s a survey,” she said. “They wanted people to have a voice.”
But Mercantini, who later said he has a very small part of his property with water access, “enough for a Jet-Ski, maybe,” maintained his objection to the assessment. He said he wants the entire town to pay for the dredging as a capital improvement, much like a road improvement that not all residents will use, even though they can. “Even if they don’t have waterfront they have boats at various boatyards,” he observed.
Gleghorn said the benefit to waterfront homeowners would be the increase in value in their homes if they were to sell them. Mercantini said the real estate market for waterfront homes has already gone up and that’s without the dredging. He then asked, “What’s to say you won’t be reassessing my home again after the dredging?” Mayor Sue Marshall said that was a real possibility.
Councilman Brian Martin said the vote was just to get a feel for what people want. “If 60 percent of people want it, that doesn’t mean it will happen, but if 90 percent of people don’t want it, then it’s a dead issue.”
John Zubriski of the east side of South Green said the vote for that section was 170 against paying the extra $174 each quarter and 117 for the assessment. “Let’s turn the page, let’s dump the issue for now. Our area is booming. The value of our homes is increasing because of COVID and the people moving out of New York. The numbers are going up now with the lagoons the way they are. What’s the rush in charging us more money?”
Zubriski said the real problem was sea level rise and flooding that occurs on Kingfisher and other low-lying roads. “People come more than once to see homes. If they can’t get down a road they are not going to buy a house if they can’t get to it.”
The council turned its attention to the upland portion of Tuckerton by awarding a bid to Arawak Paving in Hammonton to resurface all of Second Avenue.
John Edmunds of Center Street thanked Police Chief Brian Olsen for cooperating with Little Egg Harbor Township Police Chief Richard Buzby on enforcing the 25-mph speed zone on the street that starts in Tuckerton and ends in the township.
Source: thesandpaper
