BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer
LONG BRANCH — The City Council has authorized reimbursement of more than $100,000 to condominium owners in the city for snow removal and street lighting services.
At the June 13 meeting, the council unanimously adopted resolution 175-06 to refund a total of $105,414.11 to condominium owners who footed the bill for snow removal and street lighting costs incurred from 1996 through 2006, not including the 2003-04 season, according to the resolution.
Bill McLaughlin, president of the Long Branch Condominium Coalition, welcomed the council action.
“I am glad to see [the resolution] tonight,” he said. “This wasn’t done overnight.”
The Long Branch Condominium Coalition, which is made up of approximately 40 condominium associations, reached an agreement with the city in August 2005 for reimbursement of $18,600 to condominiums for snow removal and street lighting costs for the 2003-04 season. The coalition followed that up with a request for reimbursement from to 1997 to the present.
The resolution approves approximately $18,713 for snow removal and $86,700 for lighting to be dispersed to some 70 condominium complexes in the city.
The condominium owners have been paying to have snow removed in the fire and emergency lanes in their complexes and to provide adequate lighting while paying taxes to the city, McLaughlin said in April.
But the Condominium Services Act, also known as the Kelly Act, was implemented in 1993 and, according to the resolution, requires municipalities “to provide certain services to qualified private communities or provide a reimbursement.”
“The services to be provided [or reimbursed] include the removal of snow and ice from the roads and streets within the qualified private communities, as well as payment of costs associated with the provision of lighting along roads and streets within the qualified private communities,” the resolution states.
The Kelly Act began by refunding condominiums in increments, according to McLaughlin, For the 1993-94 season, 20 percent of the total cost of services would be paid to condominiums, and in the 1994-95 season 40 percent of services would be refunded, and so on until 1997, when the law provided that the condominiums would be reimbursed for the full cost of services.