By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Water, meals and warming centers aren’t needed anymore.
Electricity is back across the township. Emergency kennel and laundry services have ended.
Maybe Township Administrator Anthony Ferrera can get some sleep soon.
Primary emphasis for work related to the damage from late October’s Superstorm Sandy has moved to clearing and chipping trees, branches and debris felled by the wicked winds.
Hopefully, most of the work can be accomplished before the first major snowstorm hits.
News reports said utilities estimated the storm downed more than 100,000 trees in New Jersey. Hillsborough had its share, and Mr. Ferrera is acting to get 14 temporary workers for the Public Works and parks departments by the first week in December, he hopes.
Those extra employees would be paid for out of a federal National Emergency Grant being organized on the county level and would provide $12,000 to pay for each worker’s salary.
Those jobs are supposed to go to people who are out of work because of the storm or are long-term unemployed whose benefits have expired.
Mr. Ferrera said he expected the Township Committee to act next Tuesday night to clear the way for hiring those workers. If the county-level Greater Raritan Workforce Investment Board moves expeditiously on prescreening workers, he hopes to have workers in Hillsborough on Dec. 3.
Already on the job in the township is a New Jersey Youth Corps team of 16- to 25-year-olds.
Department of Public Works Director Buck Sixt had created a list of more than 60 senior citizens and disabled who had asked for help in repair and cleanup tasks from the hurricane, Mr. Ferrera said.
The township’s dump on Auten Road remains open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. seven days a week until further notice for tree debris only. Mr. Ferrera was complimentary of the township’s residents assisting each other in transporting branches and cut-up chunks of toppled trees.
”People have been helping each other out, which is great,” Mr. Ferrera said. “We’ve had very few complaints in the township, and the ones we do get are out of understandable frustration.”
DPW workers also are trying to conduct the annual fall leaves collection. People should rake them to the curb, but the leaves should be free of branches.
Mr. Ferrera said he reviews the financial situation daily with CFO Nancy Haberle. So far, the costs to the township budget are similar to those incurred in the August and October storms in 2011, he said.
Even if FEMA pays 75 percent of the township’s recovery costs, as anticipated, that 25 percent on the township’s dime adds up pretty quickly, he said.
Other notes:
Library: The Somerset County Library System, with a branch in Hillsborough, will not assess fines on borrowed materials that were or are due from Oct. 27 to Nov. 24.
Recycling: Pickups should be on a normal schedule.
FEMA assistance: The Federal Emergency Management Agency has opened a Disaster Recovery Center at Somerset County Human Services at 27 Warren St., Somerville. As of Friday, the office will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

