SOUTH RIVER–The mayor of South River broke a tie in order to adopt three ordinances requiring property owners to pay escrow for any new construction relating to water, sewer and electrical connections.
Council President Raymond Eppinger said, “This is not [for] residential types of connections. What we are talking about here is situations where someone is coming saying that [he or she] wants to put another story on a building or there’s going to be a new electrical connection, water [and/or] sewer connection, in order words, now because of these calculations are so changed … the borough professionals … have to verify these calculations with our professionals.”
Before the ordinances were adopted, resident and former Councilman Shawn Haussermann questioned the need for the three ordinances during the public comment portion.
“Again this is probably something that has never happened, can’t tell me the time when it happened, but you are going to hit up people that want to try and come and develop things in the borough. … This is not going to work well. You’re chasing away people that want to make improvements in town,” Haussermann said. “Again if they have to build a new building you have got three of these utilities and an extra $7,500 that you’re going to be charging them.”
The council voted in a 3-3 tie for each of the three ordinances: Republicans Eppinger, Councilman Peter Guindi and Councilman James Gurchensky voted “yes” while Democratic Councilpeople Julie Meira, John Alai and Sandra Adelino voted “no.”
Republican Mayor John Krenzel voted “yes,” breaking the tied votes to approve and adopt the three ordinances on Aug. 19 during the council meeting.
“The ordinances were adopted to take care of those rare circumstances where a developer, outside of a zoning or planning board application, requests to change what the developer has and the staff cannot do the work without input from the borough engineer,” Krenzel said. “The three [ordinances] are independent of each other. If the circumstances concern electricity, then only that ordinance is involved and only that $2,500 has to be paid.”
For example, Krenzel said that if the developer wanted to upgrade the electricity and the staff needed help with computing the transformer’s load, the staff would go to the borough engineer and receive the answer.
Krenzel said the aforementioned situation, which recently occurred, had the borough paying the engineer’s bill. Instead of the taxpayers paying the bill, the developer will now pay it.
Before any new construction is made to the sewer system by any owner of property along the line thereof, the owner will complete an application for that purpose to the borough, according to the council agenda.
In the event an application requires a determination that a property may need an increase in sewer capacity, an escrow deposit of $2,500 will be paid to the borough’s general fund. The escrow will be utilized for the professional services of the borough engineer in conducting a review and analysis of the potential increase in capacity for the development.
The escrow will be deposited by the chief financial officer, or his/her designee. At the conclusion of the municipal engineer’s report and analysis, the applicant will be entitled to the return of the balance of the escrow, according to the council agenda.
Krenzel said the benefit of adopting these ordinances is that the taxpayer does not pay for the developer’s work.
“It should be noted that this situation is rare. If occurs only if the staff needs advice. For most matters, there is no need to go to the borough engineer,” Krenzel said. “This is why the average resident will not be affected and not pay the escrow, contrary to what Haussermann has said.”
However, Alai said he voted no because “the ordinances have the possibility to slow down progress in development of our town. Developers will see the up front expense and choose to develop in a town that will not ask for escrow,” he said.
According to the specifics of the ordinance, where a tap for a service connection to any water main is required, the application will be made either by the property owner or by the plumber contracting doing the plumbing work. In the event an application requires a determination that a property may need an increase in water capacity, an escrow deposit of $2,500 will be paid to the South River Utilities Department.
At the conclusion of the municipal engineer’s report and analysis, the applicant will be entitled to the return of the balance escrow. All connection fees to be paid to the borough will be determined annually on Jan. 1 of the calendar year by calculating the total past capital costs of the borough’s water system to date and dividing that total cost by the number of equivalent, or service, connections existing within the borough, according to the council agenda.
No building or other structure will be connected with the borough lighting system nor will any current be used or taken in any building or other structure without a permit being obtained, according to the council agenda.
Meira could not be reached by press time.
For more information, visit www.southrivernj.org/agendas/council/.
Contact Vashti Harris at [email protected].