BY JANE MEGGITT
Staff Writer
UPPER FREEHOLD — Developers will soon have more fees to pay for testing soil.
Applicants will now pay the local Board of Health $40 per soil log test and $31.50 per day travel expenses to have those tests reviewed, according to a new ordinance passed at the Board of Health meeting on Dec. 14.
The ordinance, approved by a unanimous vote, establishes fees for payment for professional inspection and review services relating to soil witness activities. Any applicant seeking soil log tests on proposed lots — which, among other reasons, are done to determine septic suitability — must have these logs witnessed by the Board of Health through its personnel or agents. Under the new rule, the applicant must schedule an appointment for log witnessing through the Freehold Area Health Department (FAHD) after the applicant has paid the Board of Health assistant secretary for the anticipated test logs and associated travel costs.
Should more logs be required than anticipated, the applicant shall be responsible for the balance of payment to the board assistant secretary, according to the ordinance. Any application made to any township body or department, including the Planning Board, Zoning Board or Construction Office, will be delayed unless the account for the additional fees is settled.
Board of Health Attorney Granville Michael Magee said the ordinance was intended to reduce some of the township’s costs through the Freehold Area Health Department “due to their time spent out here due to poor quality soils.” While the township previously charged applicants a minimal fee, a soil log witnessing that might take a half-hour in a town with good soils could take eight hours in Upper Freehold, according to Magee.
The health department was losing money because of this, and the ordinance establishing a fee structure was part of contract renegotiations with the FAHD, he said. Magee added that while the FAHD may have figured a job would take an hour and a half, “Certain soils were taking six hours for two straight days.
“The taxpayers were footing the bill,” he added. “This is rectifying that.”
Board of Health Chairman Dr. S. Perrine Dey said the fees would be retroactive to January 2004.
“This [ordinance] seemed to be the most plausible way to correct the balance,” he said. “Instead of the public paying for it, the developer pays for it.”