The bids are due Thursday, February 16, at 11:00 AM. (The original spec said February 2, but I asked the Town Administrator to extend the date in order to amend the spec to include additional information.)
The work includes:
Of course, we\'d like to see this contract awarded to a local lawn care service. Please try hard to meet the date.|'+ 'November 21|No Meeting Header|20111206||Janitorial Contract|The town is advertising for a contractor to perform janitorial functions at Town Hall, Police Headquarters, Library, Stirling Lake (office and restrooms only) and Riverside Park (restrooms only).
For details, see the ad in the Nov 17 Echoes-Sentinel or contact Town Hall (647-8000 x210) for a copy of the bid documents.
The deadline for submitting proposals is Tuesday, Dec 6.|'+ 'November 10|No Meeting Header|20111215||Valley Mall|At the Township Committee meeting on Nov. 9, 2011, Mayor Harrington announced that the owner of Valley Mall has rented vacant space to Kings Supermarkets.
Kings will occupy about 30,000 square feet of the former Pathmark store (55,000 square feet). There are other Kings nearby.
|'+
'November 9|No Meeting Header|||Flood Wall Final Status|The Township Committee voted NOT to pass a local ordinance to fund the town\'s share of the Stirling floodwall project. This effectively ends the project, and opens the door to seriously consider other solutions to the flooding problem.
For a short summary of the relevance of this ordinance to the overall project, reread the bulletin dated November 10 (2010) on the Home Page or the Government Affairs page on our website.
This meeting was attended by over 100 people. If you want to watch the discussions and public comments, tune in Comcast channel 29 or Verizon channel 37 at 7:30 PM Thursday, 9:00 AM Friday, Noon Saturday or 8:30 AM Sunday.
At the urging of members on both sides of this issue, the Chamber has taken no position to advocate for or against the wall.|'+
'September 7|No Meeting Header|20110915||Flood Damage|The Long Hill Emergency Management Coordinator is advising that if you have losses from last week\'s flooding, you should:
1. Send an email to kfullagar@longhillpolice.US and report name, address, phone and one line about what was damaged.
2. Begin applying for Federal assistance by registering online at www.disasterassistance.gov or calling 800-621-FEMA.
For more alternatives, instructions and references, see the Home Page of the township website at www.longhillnj.us.
The recent flood and the town\'s response to it, are first on the agenda at tonight\'s (9/7/11) Township Committee meeting. At 7:30PM in Town Hall. I anticipate that the Committee will hear comments from the public. Or watch on Comcast 29 and Verizon 37.|'+
'August 9|No Meeting Header|20120801||Valley Road Photos|To read about the \"Lot Coverage\" presentation to the Planning Board, click here.|'+
'July 8|No Meeting Header|||Welcome to Long Hill signs|
As you know, there are ten \"Welcome to Long Hill\" signs at the principal entrances to the township. These signs are sponsored by businesses in town for a three-year subscription. The first renewal period is at hand, and four signs are available to a new sponsor.
$2000 for a three-year sponsorship
- Meyersville Road near Chatham Twp border
- Long Hill Road near Chatham Twp border
$1000 for a three year sponsorship
- White Bridge Road near Bernards Twp border
- Stonehouse Road near Bernards border
If you want to take advantage of this opportunity to put your name in front of millions of drivers, then be the first to contact Richard Shehola, Township Administrator at 647-8000 x210 or administrator@longhillnj.us|'+ 'November 10||||Flood Wall / Sewer Moratorium|REMINDER: Do not miss the Chamber of Commerce Business Card Exchange at the Stirling Hotel. Next Tuesday, November 16 at 7:00PM. All members, business operators and friends of the Chamber are invited. Bring yourself and a new member.
The Township Committee Meeting on November 10 was very long, and addressed two issues vital to the taxpayers of Long Hill.
Sewer Moratorium; Sewer Plant Upgrade
Long Hill enacted a \"Voluntary\" Sewer Ban in the Summer of 2000 - ten years ago. The town had to act because the sewer plant was exceeding its permitted flow into the Passaic River during severe rain events.
The Sewer Ban required that any new building in town could NOT be connected to the sewer system, but rather would have to construct a septic system.
We now have the report of the most recent consultant which shows that the cheapest way to lift the moratorium is:
The total cost of all this work would be about $5,300,000. We will obtain a (very) low interest loan from the state to finance the work. (The last major upgrade to the sewer plant was completed in 1992.)
To read the report of the consultants, click here.
The Township Committee agreed to this plan, and directed staff and consultants to proceed with the details for financing and bidding.
The Stirling Flood Wall
\"Doing something\" to control flooding along Valley Road in Stirling has been a matter of discussion in the town since the 1930\'s. After repeated attempts to get something started, the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) and the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) began serious design work about ten years ago.
Formal presentations of the plans began in early 2003. Public hearings were held, and in May, 2004, the Township Committee passed a resolution which outlined the history and the public comments, and ended by saying that the town \"endorses and fully supports\" the project. This document was necessary in order to assure the ACE and DEP that the town believed in the project, that the town was committed to pay its share, and that the ACE should go ahead with the planning. In parallel, our Congressman Frelinghuysen began the process of getting the project funded in the Federal budget.
The current estimate is about $10,000,000, of which the town\'s share would be $875,000 (Federal = $6,500,000 and state = $2,625,000). At the October 13 Town Committee meeting, the ACE declared that they had already spent about $1,600,000 on the plans, the required environmental studies, and modeling and testing of the proposal. The ACE expects the property to be acquired and bidding completed, so that construction can begin in August, 2011.
The flood wall extends from Lounsberry Meadows housing to Poplar Drive, behind the existing buildings on the south side of Valley Road. The town is responsible for acquiring the necessary easements from 18 property owners, to allow this construction. The estimated cost of property acquisition is $550,000 and this would count as part of the town\'s $875,000 share of the overall project.
To start the property acquisition, the Township Committee needed to adopt a bond ordinance to enable borrowing the $550,000 needed to start land acquisition, and pass a resolution to approve the final agreement with ACE and DEP. That bond ordinance and resolution were on the agenda of the November 10 meeting.
Prior to introducing the ordinance, members of the public spoke for over 1 1/2 hours. All except one taxpayer spoke against the project. At the conclusion, no member of the Township Committee was willing to move adoption of the bond ordinance, so therefore, no vote was taken.
A comprehensive summary of the October 13 presentation, answers to questions raised at that presentation, and information about related regulations and programs has been assembled by the Township Administrator. To download it from the Township Website, click here. (56 pages, 3.8 MB)
Chamber members on Valley Road or the flooded streets just north of Valley Rd. may wish to write to the Township Committee (c/o Municipal Clerk, 915 Valley Road, Gillette 07933) and express their concern that the Committee take the necessary steps to get the flood wall project started.
Dennis Sandow
Vice President, Long Hill Chamber of Commerce
government@longhillchamber.org
908-647-0999|'+
'September 15|No Meeting Header|20100916||Two stormwater ordinances|On September 15, the Township Committee will vote to approve two ordinances that affect stormwater handling on commercial premises.
1. IF AND WHEN YOU REPAVE a driveway or parking lot, you must replace the grates on all stormwater drains and catchbasins with small aperture grates. This is to prevent branches, beer cans and soda bottles and other debris from getting into the town storm drains and then being discharged into the Great Swamp or the Passaic River or its tributaries.
The acceptable grates are either bicycle-proof (less than half-inch wide openings) or any grate where all openings are smaller than 7 square inches.
There are exceptions for certain more sophisticated stormwater handling systems where netting or trash bars are already installed. Contact the Township Engineer.
2. All operators of dumpsters will be responsible for insuring that the dumpster is covered at all times, does not overflow or spill, and that it does not leak or discharge fluids or solids onto the ground and into the town\'s storm drainage system.
=========
If you think you might become subject to these laws, do the following:
Read the text of the proposed ordinances in the agenda for the September 15 Township Committee meeting, on the town website. Search for Ord. #266-10 and #267-10 in the agenda.
If you think there is a specific issue that the Chamber should be involved in, let us know by replying to this email.
You may also come to the meeting and present your comments at the Public Hearing, which is required before the ordinance is adopted.
If adopted, the ordinances will go into effect soon after September 15. We can\'t be sure of the effective date.
Your Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Liaison|'+ 'March 24|No Meeting Header|||Town Government Bids|Effective immediately, Long Hill Township has agreed to send a copy of every request for bids to the Chamber of Commerce. We will immediately broadcast an alert to our members and friends.
Our purpose in starting this service is to insure that Long Hill businesses get warned of bid opportunities, and have a chance to get the bid documents and win the bid. We want to keep our tax dollars in town, by having the township give our business a fair chance to compete for the bid awards.
The bid opportunities will appear in a sidebar box on the Chamber Home Page, and will be emailed to our mailing list.|'+ 'January 9|No Meeting Header|||Government Assistance|GOVERNMENT RELATIONS BULLETIN
There was a meeting of the Long Hill Township Committee last night (April 8, 2009). It had been advertised as a short meeting (because of Passover) and I saw nothing in the agenda that seemed significant to our members, so I did not attend.
One very routine item on the agenda was an adjustment to the sewer fee billing for one of the Chamber member\'s place of business. It was routine, and the reason for the adjustment was obvious to anyone who follows these matters.
It had been placed on the agenda routinely by the Tax Collector, and apparently, neither the Tax Collector nor the Township Administrator nor the Township Clerk thought it necessary to prepare a briefing statement so the Township Committee members would have a total understanding of the situation, before the vote.
One member of the Township Committee challenged the item. He didn\'t understand the reason for it, and had not taken the time to ask for clarification before the public meeting - which is both his right and his obligation. He threw a bunch of misstatements and generalizations into the discussion, and as a result, two things happened.
ACTION PLAN
If you have ANY matter that will come before ANY township committee, board or administrative department (no matter how trivial), PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
I will be happy to accompany you and attempt to assist with working your way through the red tape.
More importantly, I will be sure
Township officials have no trouble asking the businessmen in town to contribute their profits to support or sponsor town-government projects - the Welcome Signs, Community Day, the Police Department\'s \"Community Resource Program\" brochure, and various recreation programs. But they have been slow to adopt an attitude that facilitates doing business in Long Hill.
Changing those attitudes takes intense and ongoing communication, and an acceptance of the fact that it will be a lot easier if we stop pretending that the system will work solely on merit.
If you have any matter at all that involves official action - NO MATTER HOW TRIVIAL - the Chamber of Commerce can try to help. Please get in touch.
Dennis Sandow
Vice President, Long Hill Chamber of Commerce
government@longhillchamber.org
908-647-0999 |'+
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upDate='January 30, 2012' ;