News
Little Silver To Meter Train Station Lots
By Sherry Conohan
LITTLE SILVER - The commuter parking lot on the west side of the Little Silver railroad station will become totally metered under an agreement with NJ Transit approved by the Borough Council.
The parking lot, which fronts on Ayers Lane, currently has 123 daily parking spaces with meters and 403 permit parking spaces without meters, for a total of 526 commuter parking spaces, according to the agreement. It specifies the daily fee for parking at a meter without a parking permit will be $3.
Borough Attorney John O. Bennett III said the meters will take dollar bills and even make change for larger bills so commuters won't have to carry a bunch of quarters with them.
The commuter parking lot on the east side of the railroad station along Oceanport Avenue is all for permit parking, according to Michael D. Biehl, the borough administrator/municipal clerk.
The agreement with NJ Transit, which received the council's nod on Monday night, Nov. 15, set the cost of an annual parking permit at $360 and for a six-month permit at $200. It says the borough cannot discriminate against non-residents regarding the use of the parking lots, including but not limited to parking fees.
Currently individuals without a parking permit can park for free on the Ayers Lane parking lot, and won't be ticketed, if they arrive after 9 a.m.
Bennett said persons without a parking permit should be parking in the metered spaces in the front of the lot. Only if the metered spaces are all gone should they park in a non-metered space, he added. But Biehl noted the metered spaces are gone by 6 a.m.
Bennett said the arrival of the new meters will be accompanied by improvements to the parking lot. He said the pavement will be repaired where broken and the parking spaces will be lined.
Mayor Suzanne S. Castleman said the work will begin in the front of the lot by Ayers Lane and continue westward until the cash for the work runs out.
Bennett said there is no target date now for completion of the work. He said one contract has been awarded and two other contracts will be awarded at the council's Dec. 7 meeting.
In the past, Bennett said, the borough has typically sold parking permits equal to 120 percent of the spaces available. But this year, he said, the demand for permits equaled only 100 percent of the spaces as fewer people are commuting in these troubled financial times.
The council tabled a proposed ordinance setting the new pay scales for police officers. Biehl, the borough administrator/municipal clerk, explained after the meeting that it was tabled on the advice of Bennett who told the council in executive session that the timing of the action was wrong. Bennett said it shouldn't be acted on now as the new budget for 2010 wasn't in place, Biehl continued. He said it would be taken up, unchanged, in January when the temporary budget for the new year has been passed.
Biehl said the pay scales were set in earlier negotiations. He said 2010 is the final year of the current police contract.
In all three pay scales, based on the year, a police officer was hired, the pay for captain is $108,396, the pay for lieutenant is $102, 261 and the pay for sergeant is $96,471. The pay for patrolman varies, depending on when hired, up to $96,471. A probationary patrolman earns from $43,679 to $45,806.
Another ordinance says there are three lieutenants and three sergeants in addition to the patrolmen.
In other action, the council awarded a contract for construction of a handicapped access ramp at the back of Borough Hall up to a rear entrance to the police department to Mixalia Enterprises, LLC, of Long Branch, the lowest of nine bidders, for $29,200. The bids ranged up to $2,486,120 from Shorelands Construction Inc., of Monmouth Beach. It was explained that the ramp on the side of Borough Hall could not be used for bringing prisoners inside.
The council rejected, as deficient, the lone bid it received from Athletes' Alley in Shrewsbury for supplying recreation equipment and uniforms for the Little Silver Recreation Programs from Jan. 1, 2010, to Dec. 31, 2011. Biehl said the bid, in the amount of $46,216.65, was deficient in that the itemized Boy's Baseball page 12 of the specifications was missing along with the affirmative action certificate of the Employee Information Report.
In another matter, the council deleted from the payroll the salaries of two former employees, one of whom died, the other one retired.
Castleman said James A. McNally, who died recently, served as a crossing guard for 15 years at Markham Place and Branch Avenue. She called for a moment of silence in his memory. His salary of $42.75 a day was deleted from the payroll.
Also deleted were the four salaries totaling $65,643,for different positions held by Michael Olimpi, who retired. The council filled the code enforcement officer position he held with Thomas J. Welsh, who had been the fire code official, and was retained for $5,000,. His fire code duties are being absorbed by Red Bank under an interlocal agreement with Little Silver approved during the meeting.
