UPPER FREEHOLD — The Township Committee will permit Monmouth County to conduct aerial mosquito control operations in Upper Freehold this year.
At a recent meeting, the committee passed a resolution authorizing the Monmouth County Mosquito Control Division to achieve its goal of eliminating mosquito breeding areas.
According to the resolution, the county has established an integrated pest management program consisting of surveillance, water management, biological control and chemical control to exterminate the mosquito population.
Upper Freehold Township is considered a congested area by the Federal Aviation Administration, according to the resolution, which has resulted in the county requesting the governing body’s consent to its aerial dispensing operations.
The committee authorized the county to “apply pesticides by aircraft for mosquito control in certain areas of the municipality designated by the county as being either larval mosquito habitat or areas harboring high populations of mosquitoes constituting either a nuisance, a health hazard or both.”
County officials will notify police about the aerial spraying prior to the application of the pesticides, according to the resolution. Upper Freehold does not have its own police force; the township is served by the New Jersey State Police.
Spraying may take place from April through November.
In other business, the committee adopted an ordinance appropriating $8,000 from the capital improvement fund that will help to pay for the acquisition of emergency communications equipment and for upgrades.
The equipment will be in the form of radio communications improvements for the Office of Emergency Management, according to Township Administrator Dianne Kelly.
According to the ordinance, the estimated cost of the upgrades and the acquisition of new equipment is $29,000; $8,000 will come from the capital improvement fund; $8,550 will come from capital improvements in a previous budget; and $12,450 will come from two bond ordinances.
The improvements to the equipment have a life span of at least five years, according to the ordinance.
“There has been a lot of discussion lately among the Township Committee in regard to radios, so this will be a good improvement,” Kelly said.
— Taylor M. Lier