Municipal energy audit to check Manalapan sites

Board of Public Utilities will help pay for survey

BY MARK ROSMAN Staff Writer

Municipal buildings in Manalapan will be examined to determine their present level of energy efficiency — and how that energy efficiency may be approved — under the terms of a contract the Township Committee awarded at its March 11 meeting.

The committee members passed a resolution to award a contract to Camp Dresser and McKee to provide a municipal energy audit. The cost of the audit is expected to be $25,877, according to TownshipAdministrator Tara Lovrich.

The state Board of Public Utilities Office of Clean Energy will initially fund 75 percent of the cost of the energy audit through a grant to the township. If Manalapan officials implement any recommendations that are made by Camp Dresser and McKee, the BPU will pay the remaining 25 percent of the cost of the energy audit, Lovrich said.

The buildings scheduled to be examined are town hall, the Manalapan Senior Center, the Department of Public Works building, the maintenance garage, the Kuschick pavilion in the Manalapan Recreation Center, the recreation garage, a former firehouse on Route 33 that is expected to become a community center, and a home on Route 522 near the entrance to the Manalapan Recreation Center that now houses the recreation department, Lovrich said.

The consultant will examine the lighting, building structure, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, electrical system and windows in each building in order to determine how the structures may be made more energy efficient, the administrator explained.

In other business, Lovrich said Manalapan officials are working with Monmouth County representatives on a possible purchase of Millhurst Lake.

Millhurst Lake is in Thompson Grove Park on Thompson Grove Road and is privately owned. Lovrich said Manalapan officials may have the opportunity to purchase the lake. An initial environmental assessment will be conducted in order to determine the current condition of the lake, she said.

And, the committee has set May 13 as the date for a possible vote on an ordinance providing for the purchase of the 25-acre Tilis tract on Route 522. The ordinance appropriates $1.525 million for the purchase of the parcel and provides for the issuance of $1.45 million in bonds or notes to finance the purchase.

A public hearing on the ordinance was held on Feb. 25 and the ordinance was on the agenda for a possible vote at the March 11 meeting, but no action was taken, according to Lovrich.

The committee continues to wait for a no further action letter from the owner of the property and the state Department of Environmental Protection which will assure the township that an arsenic “hot spot” on the Tilis property has been sufficiently addressed.

Contact Mark Rosman at [email protected]