The Hammonton Gazette 09/16/15 Edition | Page 4

Board details why its fueling station will not be reopening Wednesday, September 16, 2015 • The Hammonton Gazette • Page 3 SCHOOL, from Page 1 eral inquiries of, now that we have determined that there is no contamination at the fuel station, when will we be opening it up again. number one, we didn’t look into the fuel station because we suspected any kind of contamination. We looked at it because the fuel station was not operating properly. the pumps were constantly being repaired, we were constantly sticking the tanks to see how much fuel was in there, the fobs weren’t working correctly. So it was an overall look at the whole thing, and we were like this equipment is antiquated. We need to update it and a complete overall. We got some verbal quotes from professionals that we had come in … We got some numbers from $300,000 to half a million dollars to do it right. the current situation we are in now is working without a hitch … and we are actually in the plus side of things now where it’s not costing us as much as if we were pumping our own fuel. So at this point in time to Joe’s [Giralo] inquiry, there are no discussions of opening up that fuel station, not to say that it will never be visited or discussed again, but at this point, $300,000 to $500,000 is not an option,” board member Leo Petetti said. “all the results came back negative which means there was no contamination nor a leak. and that’s a real good thing. if you take a look at the old middle school site, i believe it’s been some 10 years since we had the leak. and we went through DeP and with the cleanup and still continue to monitor and pay consultants a pretty high fee to clean up and, right now, when you look at the costs and the savings of insurance without having the fuel and the potential biohazard of not just this board, but future boards. to get back into the fuel business would not be good business for the school district right now,” school board president Sam Mento iii said. “i was actually one of the ones that spoke about the fuel station. the reason why i brought it up DiMeglio Septic, Est. 1975 ~ DEP 03261 ~ Paul DiMeglio Inc. 1 (800) 427-4617 ~ 561-1007 ~ 561-3597 491 S. White Horse Pike • Ancora, NJ • Grease Trap Cleaning • Portable Toilets • Septic Certifications • Jetting Service Open your Brand JewelMax credit card today. Follow us on... 121 S. White Horse Pike Hammonton • 561-6222 CUSTOM WEDDING BANDS • REPAIRS COMPLETED ON PREMISES was for the town to have fueling here. it looks like everything is going great with the set-up we have, so i questioned if there is anyway i can help out in getting that back up and running because we had put an inquiry as far as ourselves, the town setting up its own fuel station. and as you said, it’s a very costly agenda to put forth. We are obviously fueling the same way you guys are, and i believe everything is working well. So, i guess, that will stand as is,” Councilman Michael torrissi said. the board unanimously approved the following amounts, as stated on the agenda: • purchase order lists for July and august 2015 in the amount of $5,240,842.87. • bill list for September 2015 in the amount of $1,082,107.17. • check list for July, august and September 2015 in the amount of $1,591,184.77. • payment of the Capital Project fund check list for September 2015 in the amount of $685,861.15. • august 2015 payroll in the amount of $699,054.29. Mento updated the board on the middle school construction. “We have the air conditioning units in all wings of the school operational right now. i am very happy that it did come to fruition before school started this year. al- though, we had an extra week for the construction and with a late Labor Day our first day of school it was 95 degrees outside. So i’m sure it felt pretty nice that first time walking back into our middle school with some high quality air control in