As a courtesy to our SHPOA Members, we’re bringing you a summary of each Stone Harbor Work Session and Council Meeting. Intended as summaries, these intentionally don’t have a lot of details and are not a substitute for the official Borough minutes.
 
Work Session 
 
Electricity, water, fees, and holes
 
Atlantic City Electric presented their Smart Energy Network project. The project involves replacing the existing home meters with Smart Meters. They can then be read and monitored remotely providing greater visibility into usage and ability to identify outages. The project started this month and is expected to be completed in 2023. 
 
The Borough announced the construction of new water chlorination systems on 80th and 96th Streets would begin this fall. 
 
Council discussed Increases to Zoning Board fees for variances and noted that map changes are being considered. The increases are needed to cover the cost of the Borough Solicitor. Council plans to vote on the proposal at a future meeting.  
 
Public Works reported that the problem with digging large holes on the beach continues, creating a safety hazard for the beach cleaning equipment and others walking on the beach. The Borough will continue to look at solutions to address the problem.
 
Public Comment
 
Jim McCullough and Jon Ready from the American Legion reviewed a grant valued at greater than $100,000 from Home Depot to upgrade the facility on 117th street. 
 
Rich Fuchs, SHPOA president, thanked Council for broadcasting public meetings over Zoom. He asked Council to keep up the remote access for the public to these important public meetings as other nearby communities abandon the practice. 
 
Council Meeting
 
Council voted on several ordinances including:
Ordinance 1613 to increase salary ranges for Borough employees. The vote was 5-1 with Councilmember Jen Gensemer voting no.
Ordinance 1614 to create the position of Deputy Borough Clerk.   
Ordinance 1615 to create a reporting line between the Director of Public Works and the Borough Administrator. This was passed 5-1 with Councilmember Bunny Parzych opposed. 
Ordinances 1616 and 1617 to make the utilities division a part of Public Works and report to the director of Public Works. This was passed 5-1 with Councilmember Parzych opposed.
Members also passed several resolutions which would extend the Farmers Market for an additional two weeks, extend part-time police officers to December 31 and extend three part-time firefighters to September 31. It also passed a resolution recognizing Sr. James for 65 years of service.
 
To view documents discussed at the meeting, please click: https://stoneharbornj.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Regular-Meeting-Agenda-web.pdf
 
To view a recording, please click: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQkC36lK7BQ