photo courtesy of Monmouth County Citizens for Environmental Health and Safety facebook group
Freeholder Director Tom Arnone announced that a public meeting regarding the County government’s efforts to remediate the odors emitting from the Monmouth County Reclamation Center will be held on Monday, May 13, 7 p.m., at the Tinton Falls Municipal Building, 556 Tinton Avenue.
“At this meeting, I look forward to providing an in-person update on the progress that has been made as well as the current work being done at the landfill. I will be addressing specific questions and concerns that have been raised and discussing the next steps the County will be taking over the coming weeks,” Arnone said in an email to Tinton Falls residents.
O’Scanlon: Bears Hanging out in Monmouth County on Memorial Day Weekend is not “normal behavior”
Male bear killed in Union Beach on Saturday night. photo by Councilman Charlie Cocuzza
In response to our report this morning that NJ DEP’s Fish and Wildlife Division told Union Beach Police officials that “We don’t come out on weekends” and “that is not our protocol,” when the UBPD asked for their assistance in tranquilizing and relocating the bear that was shot and killed last night, DEP spokesman Bob Considine said, “the notion that F&W biologist don’t work weekends is ridiculous and offensive.”
Considine said that had the Union Beach situation been Category 1, i.e., the bear was a threat to public safety or property, that Fish and Wildlife biologists would have been on the scene. He said that the situation in Union Beach last night was a Category 3…a bear exhibiting normal behavior and not a nuisance or threat to public safety.
Considine said that F&W advised UBPD that they would not be disposing of the carcass over the weekend. The bear’s body is now stored in a locked dumpster on Union Beach Borough property. “Perhaps something got lost in translation,” he said.
The Union Beach Police Department requested the assistance of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Fish and Wildlife to tranquilize and relocate the male bear that was eventually shot and killed on Saturday night, according to Councilman Charlie Cocuzza.
Cocuzza said that he was on the scene for over four hours with Union Beach Police officers. He stressed that the officers “did everything that was suggested by Fish and Wildlife.”
During a phone interview with Cocuzza this morning, he said that UBPD received a call from a resident reporting the presence of a bear at Dock and 3rd Ave at approximately 9:30 pm on Saturday, according to the source. By 9:50 pm police had spotted the bear and started evacuating the fishing area at the point.
A drought watch has been issued in parts of 12 New Jersey counties, encompassing more than two-thirds of the population, after months of dry, warm weather that have driven the state’s water supply to worryingly low levels. Rainfall totals in parts of northern and central New Jersey have been just over 50 percent of average over… Read the rest of this entry »
LEONARDO — Past the gates and security checkpoints, down the miles of reinforced pier where train cars load ordnance aboard warships, beneath the waves and the watchful eye of the United States Navy, sit the world’s most heavily-guarded shellfish. For three years, the environmental group NY/NJ Baykeeper has been growing tankfuls of oysters at Naval Weapons… Read the rest of this entry »
BELMAR —Days before Hurricane Sandy inundated large parts of New Jersey with its storm surge, Lake Como in Monmouth County was partially drained to make room for the rising waters that were expected to accompany the superstorm. But even those efforts didn’t spare the surrounding towns, which frequently had to contend with the lake overspilling its… Read the rest of this entry »
Senator Jennifer Beck, Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini, Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande, Monmouth County Freeholder Tom Arnone, and Neptune Township Committeeman Randy Bishop offered the following statement Monday to update residents on the progress being made in the effort to dredge Shark River state navigation channels:
“This project is closer to reality than ever before. This is a result of years of work coordinating with the many agencies that have authority over this project. This project focuses on what we can do, dredge the state navigation channels of the river” Arnone explained, a former Neptune City Mayor. “A project like this has to have full cooperation from the federal, state, county, and municipal governments. It has been a long process, but one that is moving forward”.
There are two permits necessary to move forward with the project: one from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and the second from the US Army Corps of Engineers. NJ DOT has submitted applications for both permits. The State hopes to bid this project in time for a late-summer project award. If a responsive bid is received, and the selected contractor chooses, dredging could potentially begin later this year. The contractor may be given the option to conduct the work over two dredging seasons if necessary.
The Monmouth County bridge that crosses Havens Bridge Road in Howell Township collapsed on Saturday, May 9. The bridge had been closed for weeks prior to the failure due to damage discovered during an inspection by employees of the County Public Works and Engineering Department.
News of the collapse was first reported on the Our Howell NJ facebook community page.
“Thank God we closed the bridge before this happened and no one got hurt,” said Freeholder Tom Arnone, liaison to the Public Works Department, when confirming the collapse.
Bids expected in late summer. Award anticipated in Fall of 2015
The long delayed dredging of the Shark River Channels is finally moving forward, according to a statement released today by State Senator Jennifer Beck, Freeholder Tom Arnone and Neptune Township Committeeman Randy Bishop.
The New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Office of Maritime Resources has provided a working timeline for dredging the channels. Requests for proposals (RFP) will be released by DOT in August or September, according to Arnone, and a contract for the project is expected to be awarded in late October.
