Minutes HCTA Trustee meeting Friday, October 24, 2008 Lewis Residence
Present: LN, BF, CG, SL, BL, KR, KP, PK, Mayor Jon Oldham Absent: TC, JC, MP, ST
Mayor Oldham’s Briefing: Beach Replenishment update- the appraisal process re-bids should be complete by the end of the year. The funding is provided by the Feds (65%), the State (25%) with the rest (10%) paid for by Harvey Cedars and Ocean County. As far as monies possibly owed to any oceanfront owners, the courts have found there could be a value of $300.00 if no “damage” is done to the dune concerning the view. That could possibly affect two homeowners. The town has had their Public Access Plan- in theory- approved by the State.
Designate your driveway-the borough will begin to work on language for an ordinance that will help homeowners designate a driveway. The HCTA will assist in the development of this ordinance language. If you sell or renovate your home, the borough will work with you (or the new owner) to clearly designate your 18 feet of driveway. Thus hoping to minimize street parking issues. If anyone has any ideas or has seen ways to fairly address this in other towns, please contact the borough.
Traffic safety on the Blvd-Jon met with the head of the County Engineers to discuss their Traffic Count Study done in July. They said the Blvd can support the three lane road concept, however they don’t recommend this model as they think it will affect moving traffic and possibly increase accidents. Jon thinks they will have more information in November. As of the beginning of November, no computer generated model has been seen. Phil Kunz will meet with the head of traffic safety for the county to try to obtain more information.
Southern Regional High School extra funding referendum scheduled for vote on December 9, 2008- The mayor indicated that this will receive some state funding, but only the parts considered educational. Not dollars slated for building improvements, “soft costs”, etc. Considering the economy-who knows what the state will actually commit to. For this special vote in December, only a majority of votes are needed to pass the referendum, not the 2/3’s majority usually required. The mayor does NOT support this cost increase referendum and encourages everyone who can to get out and vote NO on December 9th. The polls are open from 1pm to 9pm.
Trash pick-up- Phil Kunz inquired about who is picking up items and when they are doing it. Harvey Cedars has two trucks sitting in the yard. They are used for brush pick-up. We have a new trash hauler this year-this will save us $160-200K over three years. Charlie Gaver (our JCTA rep) added that Harvey Cedars currently has a 28% recycling average. LBI has a poor participation level relative to the rest of Ocean Co. The JCTA and the mayors of LBI want to see this improve. Various trustees have expressed concerns that the pickup is erratic and the schedule put out by the borough is not adhered to. Mayor Oldham said the borough will work on improving trash item pickup and sticking to the printed schedule. The group also discussed the possibility of the borough hosting a “scrap day” pickup.
NOTE: Since the Trustee meeting the Borough has approved the scheduled pick-up of “White Goods”. If you need a pickup, please contact Diana at Public Works to schedule.
President/Bryan Lewis: Bryan passed around a sample “Harvey Cedars” tee-shirt he created and purchased from online retailer Zazzle to share the quality with trustees. As discussed previously, the HCTA can create an online catalog of Harvey Cedars items for purchase as a way to fundraise with no overhead expense. The trustees agreed this was a good idea and Bryan will proceed with this project. Bryan also brought up dues collection. We have about 150 households on our roster with less than 50% dues payment. Kathy suggested looking into PayPal. We discussed e-mailing/snail mailing some type of “ticket” for entrance to the Annual meeting for those who have paid. For those who have not, they could pay their dues at the door. This idea will be revisited. Bryan will also send a letter via Blast e-mail to updating our members on our activities, etc. and informing them of the SRHS Dec 9, 2008 referendum.
Treasure’s Report/ Barbara Frank: We have $3,241.75 in our account. All bills are paid at this point. We have another Business member-IKM Insurance has joined and sent in their dues. Otherwise, we have not received any new dues checks in the last two weeks.
Joint Taxpayer Council Report/Charlie Gaver: Charlie reported on the follow up and pressure from the JCTA to the SRHD administration for cost information and a breakdown of expenses of their proposed budget increase to justify this special election. President Bill Knarre wrote a letter to the SR BOE expressing the JCTA’s unhappiness at the LBI BOE representative’s lack of response to the questions asked of them. The LBI BOE representatives where unable to answer taxpayer questions on the budget increase or reasons for the increase. They said they would look into it and get back to the JCTA. They never did follow-up.
Membership-Website/Susan Lewis: The website is current. IKM’s logo was added to the homepage. Susan has followed up with all members whose e-mail addresses came back as undeliverable and these changes have been made to the roster.
Media Contact-Communications/Kathy Ries: Kathy suggested the HCTA take on an Emergency Preparedness Initiative to inform and assist the community in advance preparation for an emergency. This could include neighborhood phone/email lists for residents. A preparedness checklist (ie. bring-inside/tie down outdoor furniture, what to take if you need to evacuate), contact numbers for weather info, officials, etc. The Trustees agreed this was pro-active and a great way to do something for Harvey Cedars. Kathy will develop this idea further and have more information for our next meeting.
Our next meeting will be Friday, January 23. It will either be at Town Hall or Kathy Ries’s home.
Submitted by Susan Lewis
Comments