Committee Meeting Highlights

The planned budget introduction didn't take place at last night's Barnegat Township Committee meeting, but there was plenty to talk about. Here's a breakdown of the important issues addressed by the Committee.

• The township’s , and will take place at a special meeting at 3 p.m. Friday, May 27 in the courtroom.

• Mayor Jeffrey Melchiondo announced that the Department of Transportation has agreed to continue work on the Route 9 resurfacing project through June. All stretches of the road that currently have one lane paved will be paved curb-to-curb before the DOT stops work for the summer, he said. Untouched areas will be resurfaced when work resumes after Labor Day.

• Township officials are pressing four developers who have failed to complete work on roads and sidewalks in recently built neighborhoods to make promised improvements, said township administrator David Breeden. The township has taken legal action against the developers of the West Bay Avenue Estates and Hillside Estates neighborhoods, he said, and has threatened to do the same to the builders of High Point at Barnegat and Freedom Hills. The process isn’t entered into lightly, Breeden said, because the legal wrangling can go on for months and even years, but “the township recognizes that these developers need to fulfill their obligations.”

• Breeden also announced that Barnegat will soon award a contract for solid waste services that has the potential to save the township $1.6 to $1.8 million over several years. One of the companies involved in the bidding has put forth a protest over the township’s choice of contractors, Breeden said, but officials hope to award the bid Monday, June 6.

• The township has made some temporary improvements to Taylor Lane, the deeply potholed and frequently flooded residential dirt road on the south end of Barnegat . Officials are reviewing proposals for long-term repairs to the road, Breeden said, and are weighing their options. Jennifer Bennett, who lives on Taylor, thanked the Committee for the attention her street got. “We came in knowing it wasn’t going to be a come here, done tomorrow project,” she said, but a permanent solution to the road’s drainage problem is necessary. “Every single time it rains, it does come back,” said Bennett.