Mayor, town officials discuss 2020 municipal road projects
Page 4 • Wednesday, February 19, 2020 • The Hammonton Gazette
ROAD, from Page 1
grades, and I’ll design the grades
for the roadway. Then they’ll also
going to call (Councilman) Steve
Furgione and (Municipal Utilities
Superintendent) Anthony DeCicco,
because we have to video some of
the pipes on some of those streets
to see if any of those pipes need to
be repaired before we pave it,”
Vettese said
“We’re hoping to do Washington
Street, from Orchard to 13th. We’re
hoping to do Orchard Street, from
Egg Harbor Road to Tilton. We’re
looking at Greenwood Drive, the
balance of that, and we’re looking
at Valley Avenue, the balance from
Central to Broadway,” Mayor
Stephen DiDonato said.
Vettese also said that School-
house Lane and Giordano Lane
were on the list of possible proj-
ects.
Councilman Sam Rodio, chair of
the Public Works and Transporta-
tion committee, expanded a bit on
the mayor’s goals for the roads he
mentioned.
“Orchard is one of the ones that
need to be camera’d ... They’re
supposed to be hiring that company
that comes in and cameras the un-
derground, because that’s one of
the roads that’s really, really old, so
we don’t want to do a mill and
overlay then find out that we’ve
got issues underground,” Rodio
said.
The company Rodio referred to
is Mobile Dredging & Video Pipe
Services of Newfield. Rodio also
gave an explanation as to what the
term “mill and overlay” means.
“Mill and overlay is like what
we did on Chestnut (Street). You
do the curbing where it needs to be
done, then you mill it and then you
do asphalt,” Rodio said.
Vettese said that Orchard Street’s
age and condition require the extra
work.
“Orchard Street’s one of the
older streets in town, so they want
to see if the sanitary sewer and pos-
sibly the storm sewer, or a portion
of it, whether it needs to be re-
paired or if everything’s okay and
we can pave it. Before they decide
what they’re going to do, they’ve
got to do that little bit of the study
also,” Vettese said.
Rodio noted that Washington
Street will undergo a similar
process, given its age.
“That’s the other one that’s old,
and we’ve got to camera that also.
Again, Steve Furgione and An-
thony DeCicco will take care of
that part first,” Rodio said.
Rodio said that the work on
Greenwood Drive is also likely to
be mill and overlay, but Valley Av-
enue might require video work as
well.
“We camera’d Valley when we
did from Broadway to Bellevue,
which is where it was really bad,
and it didn’t seem to a problem
from Broadway to Central. That’ll
probably be a mill and overlay
also, but we’re probably going to
camera that, so until we do, it’s
kind of up in the air,” Rodio said.
DiDonato said that he hopes to
see these projects completed in
2020.
“We’re hoping to get to all of
that ...when we start pricing it out,
we’re going to spend about $1.2
million like we did last year,” Di-
Donato said.
Vettese also discussed the
process for financing the projects.
“Once they decide on the roads,
and the dollar amount they want to
spend, they’ll have to go put forth
a bond ordinance to appropriate
that. They’ll talking about if they
want to do one bond ordinance to
take care of multiple projects, so if
they’re doing like the Boyer Av-
enue site and a couple of other sites
that they wanted to try and do,
whether they combine all these to-
gether to form one bond, or if they
just do like last year they just did a
bond ordinance for the roads. They
might decide to do that again also,
but that’s up to the time that they
want to try and do it, and then, if
they want to do one project before
the other, then they would pose a
separate bond,” Vettese said.
Vettese also noted that there is a
financial carry-over from 2019.
“They still have some money left
over from last year, so they’re
going to try to do as much as they
can with last year’s money. Then if
they have to put additional money
forth for this year, that would be
the new bond ordinance,” Vettese
said.
Rodio said that the scope of each
project will ultimately determine
how much is accomplished in
2020.
“We’re kind of in the infancy of
the new year, but within the next
two months we’re probably going
to know exactly what we’re going
to do and which way and how
we’re going to do it ... Until we
know how much we’re going to be
spending, if we have to spend un-
derground—the dollar amount
costs so much more, of course, to
do underground versus mill and
overlay—depending how much
money we’re going to have to
spend, it’s a little early yet to say
how far we’re going to get,” Rodio
said.
Vettese concurred with Rodio.
“They’ll have to see what the
dollar amounts are, then go back
and form a final list from that,”
Vettese said.
DiDonato was optimistic about
the timetable for the 2020 Roads
Program.
“We’re cameraing the piping
probably in the next month or so to
see the status of the water and
sewer piping, especially sewer and
storm sewer ... by the time we get
all the pipe work checked, we’d
like to get it going in the summer,
summer to fall, somewhere in that
time frame. We can get a better
price later in the year. We’re work-
ing on it, and we’ll know more in
the next 60 to 90 days,” DiDonato
said.
School board honors teachers, athletes, more at Feb. 13 mtg.
BOARD, from Page 14
meeting for work-related commitments.
Mento introduced the 2019 HHS football
team, which was being honored for
becoming WJFL Royal Division and
NJSIAA Central Jersey Group 4 champions
in the fall.
“It’s been a while since we’ve been able to
say that, and it’s great to be back on the
championship side. Thank you to all the
parents, coaches and obviously players that
performed out there … Being an alumni of
the football team I often look back as an
adult to lessons I learned on the gridiron …
There will be a time in your life when you
face adversity, and you will look back and
think of times you’ve had on the football
field and hopefully that’ll give you the
fortitude to continue to push through
whatever you’re going through in life. Once
again I just wanted to say congratulations, it
means a lot to the school district and the
town,” Mento said.
HHS Athletic Director Marni Henry-Parks
then took to the podium to speak about the
football team and the support they’ve
received from booster clubs.
“Every kid that came through, the success
that we had, is a direct reflection of a
community working together to achieve
greatness, and that’s what Hammonton is.
Blue Devils; they’re exceptional,” Henry-
Parks said.
She then recognized two booster clubs that
helped provide the student athletes with what
they needed this season: Blue and White
Gridiron Club and All Sports Booster Club.
Some members of the booster clubs were in
attendance, and each received a
commemorative championship poster.
Henry-Parks introduced HHS football
head coach Jim Raso and his coaching staff.
“What these gentlemen did and
accomplished was a direct reflection of the
countless hours of head coach Jim Raso,
preparing not only the young men but his
entire coaching staff … The hours,
dedication, film, preparation; but more
importantly they have a group of boys and
teach them things, not only about football,
but they, day in and day out, teach these boys
how to become young men and do things the
way we do in Hammonton, as a Blue Devil,
and that speaks volumes. It’s great to win
championships but to win with class, having
your brother’s back, doing the hard work to
get there; that’s what’s most impressive
about this entire group, coaches and players,”
Henry-Parks said.
See EDuCATION, Page 14