$190K DOT grant for 14th St. repairs from Second Rd. to Folsom line
Page 4 • Wednesday, April 22, 2015 • The Hammonton Gazette
PWTC, from Page 1
news to the committee during the meeting,
as there is $78.75 million available in the
Transportation Trust Fund.
“That was the second attempt by ARH,
and we received money to do that project. I
believe it is close to the estimate that was
submitted. This is from Second Street to the
Folsom line,” Barberio said.
On April 20, Mayor Stephen DiDonato
told The Gazette that the start of the project
could take place sometime toward the end
of the year.
Barberio updated members of the committee on a home that was affected by a fire
more than a year ago on 39 Centennial
Drive. The homeowner didn’t have the
property cleaned when asked to, and he was
in court on Tuesday, April 14 where he was
fined.
“Our code enforcement officials issued a
notice shortly after last month’s meeting. I
think it was on March 17. The mayor
[Stephen DiDonato] and I appeared in court
on Tuesday. The homeowner pled guilty to
a $21,000 fine and two weeks to clean up
the property, plus reimbursement of the
town for $1,500 for the fence that was installed. The judge ruled, if the individual
cleans the property up in two weeks, the
fine will be excused. The $1,500 comes
back to us for the fence we installed. That
was an outstanding issue that we took care
of on Tuesday [April 14],” Barberio said.
There have been requests from two residents for street lights, one on South Liberty
Street and one on Pleasant Mills
Road, according to Barberio.
“I have given the electric company the pole numbers. They are
going to get back to us with a cost
to add street lights at those locations. The one on South Liberty
Street, the neighbor had been complaining that the Woman’s Civic
Club building has a lot of affairs,
which they do, and they have a lot
of street parking and it is dark. The
other one was for Pleasant Mills
Road, and the section there is really
dark,” Barberio said.
Barberio also provided an update on the work being performed
at the Hammonton Municipal Airport, and stated it is nearly complete.
“I met with the contractor this
morning [Thursday, April 16]. The
contractor is 95-97 percent done.
He has the tarmac lights. He has all
of the lights working properly. I
was able to turn on the lights with
my microphone. All the electrical
components are completed. He was
doing hydro seeding and grating
around the ditches. It has gone really well. So, the lights have been
upgraded to LEDs, all of the
trenches have been completed, the
tarmac now has lights so when you
are moving airplanes around it is
completely illuminated, especially
when you are getting fuel. It is
much safer and there is signage. So,
this $870,000 grant, which the contractor bid just under $600,000, we
were able to stretch it out and get
all those items in there,” Barberio
said.
In the engineer’s report, Robert
Vettese of ARH discussed two action items for the April 20 town
council meeting. There was a status
for wells one and three as work is
ongoing.
“The contractor has been working out on the site. We are still trying to shoot for that June 1
operation. I would say it is about 78
percent done. We are asking for
$20,000, but only if we get reimbursed. If we find out something on
that I will bring it up during the
meeting [town council meeting].
The request is not to exceed
$20,000, subject to NJDOT Spill
Fund approval of the work,”
Vettese said.
The other potential action item
was the Weymouth Road Drainage
project. In December, council took
action to extend the contractor, the
service agreement to December of
2015, according to Vettese.
“The county has basically acted on that
now. What they have sent back is a contract
amendment, so what we need and I talked
with the legal department at the county,
they said they really don’t need a resolution
from the town, just a motion for the mayor
to sign the three contract renewals,” Vettese
said.
Vettese and David Cella of ARH had an
update on the piping, sanitary sewer, storm
sewer and other utilities being performed
on Grape Street, Pratt Street and the intersections. The April 15 deadline has passed,
and the committee was deciding what action to take next.
The contractor, Charles Marandino, is
proposing an additional extension to the
end of May, but there was already one extension granted in November for 75 additional days, which expired last week.
“They [the contractor] gave us a revised
schedule for the end of May. We have asked
them to shorten that and get their paving
done sooner. The question that hasn’t been
raised yet is are we going to let them base
[coat] one side and go back and top it off at
a later date? But when they come in with a
paving crew to start basing over they need
to start fixing and topping on Grape Street,”
Cella said at the April 16 meeting.
Members of the committee met with the
contractor on April 20 in order to get a clear
vision of what needs to be completed with
the ongoing lengthy road reconstruction
project. Based on the contract, discussions
on legal ramifications could come up at
some point as well if deadlines are not met,
committee members and professionals said
during the two meetings. The new deadlines
are May 30 for base course on Pratt Street
and June 29 for top coat on Pratt Street, the
committee said. Grape, Second and Packard
Streets are expected to be completed by
May 15, the committee said.
“We have to have a meeting to find out
where we are with this project. When are
we going to wrap everything up and what
are the issues that are holding us up at this
point? We let them work through the winter
and now April 15 has passed,” Councilman
Edward Wuillermin said on April 16.
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