The smiley faced water tower beckons visitors to Longport.
By NANETTE LoBIONDO GALLOWAY
LONGPORT – Two Atlantic County commissioners attended the Longport Board of Commissioners reorganization meeting Wednesday. Although no one was being sworn in and the board made some routine yearly appointments, longtime Freeholders, now called County Commissioners, John Risley and Ernest Coursey attended the meeting to wish the borough well and offer their assistance for anything the borough may need in the new year.
On Tuesday, Risley, who serves at large, was unanimously elected chairman of the Atlantic County Board of County Commissioners. It is the first time Risley, who has been a county representative for the last 23 years, has been elected to serve as chairman.
“County government is here for you,” Risley said. “We’re just a phone call away.”
Coursey was reelected to the county board in November as the representative in District 1, which following redistricting now includes the Downbeach communities of Ventnor, Margate and Longport, along with Atlantic City.
“It’s a new territory for me and there are things we can work on together,” Coursey said. “My ministry is to help the little people and be their voice in county government.”
Mayor Nicholas Russo invited both commissioners to attend the borough’s upcoming 125th anniversary celebrations on March 7 and July 27. Russo said Longport was the second municipality on Absecon Island to incorporate following the incorporation of Atlantic City in 1854.
Longport commissioners introduced its annual ordinance establishing salary ranges and hourly rates for non-union employees, which includes administrative employees, members of the Beach Patrol, the Department of Revenue and Finance and certain Public Works employees. The ordinance includes stipends paid to members of the Longport Volunteer Fire Department’s emergency services duty crews, such as certified EMTs and ambulance drivers.
A resolution will allow the Longport Police Department to acquire decommissioned military equipment and supplies over the next year. The board also approved extending an existing shared services agreement with Egg Harbor Township to provide police dispatch services for the next three years.
Engineer Ed Dennis Jr. of Remington & Vernick Engineers provided updates on several public works projects currently in the works.
Dennis said concrete and drainage work on a section of Monmouth Avenue would continue for another two weeks, and paving of the roadway would be completed in the spring. Work to upgrade water and sewer utilities on a section of Atlantic Avenue will start on Monday, Jan. 16, with paving of the roadway completed in spring.
Work on the new wellhouse at the Public Works yard is nearly complete, and the utility is ready to submit paperwork to obtain a permit from the NJ DEP to operate before switching to the new well. Also, work is still being done on the containment system for painting the smiley-faced water tower.
Dennis said planner Arthur Ponzio has submitted an application for permit from the NJ DEP to replace a portion of bulkhead on the bayside near the Margate border, and that the borough would be ready to accept bids for the project in February.
“That will allow us to get the work completed by Memorial Day,” Dennis said.
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