Council discusses South Jersey Gas deed notice at mtg.
Page 4 • Wednesday, November 13, 2019 • The Hammonton Gazette
COUNCIL, from Page 1
zuber and members of council.
“Mr. Howell submitted a deed
notice for the South Jersey Gas
property on Lincoln Street. Mr.
Howell, Mr. Vettese and i, we’ve
all reviewed the notice, and there
are a few things that need to be re-
solved prior to final acceptance,
but Mr. Howell had requested
council to authorize the mayor to
execute the deed notice once final-
ized by all parties,” Hermann said.
The email in question was not
read by Councilman Sam rodio,
who stated that he did not believe
that it would be on the evening’s
agenda. Councilman Steven fur-
gione also attested to not giving it
a thorough examination.
“There was about 20 conditions
... i didn’t read every sentence; i
perused through it. There were
pages of it ... Let’s go forward
with it. it’s important. if there’s
anything that happens going for-
ward we’ll deal with it. This is re-
garding deed restricting that
property. This is regarding future
clean-up, liability, all of it, so i
think it’s important that we at least
get something going, and if we
have to modify it, so be it,” fur-
gione said.
furgione made a motion to
move forward with the deed exe-
cution, subject to the final condi-
tions sought by Howell. zuber as-
sured council that the email with
conditions will be provided to all
council members by the next
meeting. The vote was approved.
furgione later spoke with The
Gazette and summarized the mat-
ter up for vote.
“The vote on Monday was an
agreement with South Jersey Gas
finalizing the deed restrictions
placed on our lot where the Lin-
coln Street wells and water tower
are located. it also includes the lot
the town owns adjacent to the
water tower in the fenced-in area,”
furgione said.
Howell also spoke with The
Gazette and provided a more in-
depth explanation of the matter at
hand.
“Some time in the last three
years, i guess, South Jersey Gas
did a remediation project in the
vicinity of the water tower on 12th
Street. There was decades-long
contamination in the soil that they
entered into an agreement with the
town that they were going to clean
it up, and they did do that. When
you do projects like that, in order
to be fair to the public, today, to-
morrow, 50 years from today and
tomorrow, you have a document
called a deed notice,” Howell said.
in essence, according to How-
ell, this deed notice is a notifica-
tion to the public of prior
environmental activity taking
place at a property, and how that
may limit future usage.
“it indicates what kind of activ-
ity can take place on the property,
in general terms. More impor-
tantly, it’s notification to a poten-
tial acquirer of the property that
there was work done here in the
mid-2010s ... there’s certain limit-
ing things you can’t do on the
property because of that,” Howell
said.
Howell was quick to point out
that this email does not represent
any new issues with the site nor
with the town; it is merely the cul-
mination of the project.
“This is all public record; this is
nothing new. This is just the au-
thorization for the mayor to sign
it. This isn’t like something that
came out of the blue. This was, if
you go back into the records, this
was Day One of the project, that
this property would have a deed
notice attached to it. Well, we’re
at the end of the project, and now
we’re working on the language of
the deed notice ... it was part of the
overall cleanup project, and now
we’re putting the finishing
touches on language to put that
Vendor/craft fair at center Nov. 23
HaMMONTON—a Holiday Vendor/Craft fair will be held on Saturday, November 23 from 10 a.m. to
2 p.m. at Hammonton Center. Tables are available. if you want to sign up as a vendor, call regina Tegan
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Planning board sets 2020 dates
BOARD, from Page 3
fence height at 421 W. Pleasant St. Lucca was
granted relief from side yard setback and fence
height so that she can repair the fence and porch that
was already on property when property was pur-
chased in 1996.
The Hammonton Planning Board meets in town
hall at 7 p.m. on the first and third Wednesday of
each month. Their next meeting will be on Decem-
ber 18.
into effect, and that’ll be recorded
at the county, and that will be pub-
lic record,” Howell said.
During the council meeting,
furgione did state that, while there
were no new issues or problems,
the work on the site has continued
to present challenges to the town,
particularly regarding the repaint-
ing of the Lincoln Street water
tower.
“We actually had to have a con-
versation with South Jersey Gas’s
engineer when we started to paint
the tower—the actual working
tower—to make sure that we
weren’t digging in too deep to put
in the foundation for the scaffold-
ing, so there’s a lot of coordination
that’s our property that goes along
South Jersey Gas and their engi-
neers that we need to continue. i
think i brought it up last meeting;
they’re constructing, they call it an
‘ice bridge’ to handle the antenna
from Verizon because they can’t
pour footing in the ground deeper
than two feet, not to disturb what
was done there,” furgione said.
Despite that challenge, furgione
said that work on the water tower
is proceeding apace, noting that
the tower had been completely
covered, the scaffolding was com-
plete and that sandblasting of the
tower was due to commence with
welding to follow once enough of
the tower had been blasted.
“We have told them, and they
agreed, the welding of these
brackets must be complete prior to
painting. We don’t want to go
back and do some sort of spot-
weld or touch-up paint. We want
to make sure it’s done right,” fur-
gione said.
There was less certainty, how-
ever, regarding the project’s com-
pletion date, though furgione was
able to provide an estimate.
“They’re trying to wrap this
project up early December. They
said Thanksgiving, i’m saying
early December, so let’s just say
mid-December. They’re going to
heat as needed, sandblast for a
couple of weeks and go right to
painting, then put all of the anten-
nas back permanently. i would say
six weeks to two months, that
thing is done,” furgione said.
Work on the fourth Street water
tower has yet to commence, but a
proposal has been received to ex-
amine the tower and give a recom-
mendation as to what does or does
not need to be painted, and how to
do it properly.
“it is broken down into two
parts: $3,800 for the inspection,
and a $1,200 lead paint certifica-
tion. i don’t think we’re going to
need that; i’d rather have that than
not, because we did paint the top
of the tower post-1991. Not to ex-
ceed $5,000, and i’m going to try
to bring it in to $3,800,” furgione
said.
in other council business, town
solicitor Michael Malinsky re-
quested a motion for representa-
tion for pending litigation.
“if the council is so inclined, a
motion to authorize me to handle
the defense of the litigation mat-
ters thus enclosed,” Malinsky
said.
The motion was approved.
During the presentation of his
report, Hermann presented the fol-
lowing information items with up-
dates on several roads projects
throughout Hammonton:
• 2018 State aid funding (14 th
Street) (arH #11-40056.01): The
Town awarded a second contract
to arawak Paving for the Phase
iia improvements at the Septem-
ber Council Meeting. Construc-
tion on Phases ii and iia of this
project commenced on October 7,
See tOWN, Page 12