MANASQUAN — The Manasquan borough council heard a presentation that provided updates on upcoming repairs to rehab the borough’s water storage tank from Ryan Travers, assistant to the superintendent of public works, at its Sept. 3 meeting.
The project will completely overhaul the borough’s sole source of pressure distribution throughout the borough, Travers said. While the project is underway, eight hydropneumatic tanks will be installed in the borough’s public works facility to act in place of the water tower.
“We will have some slight changes in basically the delivery of drinking water. Nothing is going to change with the treatment process so water quality will be maintained throughout the project,” Travers said.
Contractors on scene provided Travers a preliminary schedule, which indicated the tank may be taken offline in November; however, according to Borough Administrator Tom Flarity, the work can begin as soon as October.
Once the project is ready to start, the water tank will be taken offline and contractors will proceed to sandblast the water tower, strip it down to bare metal, paint the inside and out and ultimately make any structural repairs necessary to the tank itself, according to Travers.
“It’s a much needed rehabilitation project. The tank was built in the early 1950s, so this is to my knowledge the first undertaking of this nature done to this tower. This is the only tower we have, so this is one of our most important assets in the water distribution and treatment process,” Travers said.
He revealed the rehabilitation process could take up to two months and that contractors are hoping to finish up before the Christmas holiday.
The council authorized extended work hours for the project’s contractor, Allied Painting Inc., to conduct work across the entire week during a seven-day work period, beginning at 7 a.m.
“This time of the year it’s better for painting. You don’t have extreme heat, you don’t have extreme cold. We’re going to have probably an eight-week window for major operations.
“Just so the public is aware, sandblasting is loud. There’s just going to be some disruption. That’s why with tonight’s resolution allowing them to work seven days a week, that makes the project shorter, which means they get out of here faster,” Borough Engineer Joe Raftery said.
According to Mayor Mike Mangan, neighbors in close proximity to the water tower received hand-delivered notices regarding the project. He said that throughout the project process, residents will receive updates on townwide email chains, while neighbors directly impacted by the constructions will receive real time updates.
Raftery said scaffolding and protection netting will be installed around the tank to ensure debris isn’t spread past the project’s construction zone.
As of Tuesday, the project is currently in the turnover phase, in which the replacing hydropneumatic tank systems must mimic that of the water tank. According to Raftery, the replacement tanks are being laid down, and other testing must occur before the project can move forward.
At the July 3 council meeting the council issued a bond ordinance appropriating $2,300,000 for the “rehab of the elevated water storage tank and decant tank,” of which $554,625 comes from ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds provided by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
Councilman Jay Bryant stated, “I’m glad this project is finally on tap to get done. I keep reminding the public and everybody, really good financing on this. The borough was wise enough to save… from the Rescue America Plan and put that towards it. It’s really nice to pass that hefty check to offset the burden of the taxpayers. I know all the west-siders are happy to see that tank get painted. There were two bald eagles over there this weekend… Hopefully it won’t disturb them too much and we’ll have a nice tank for them to perch on.”
OTHER NEWS
In other news at the Sept. 3 council meeting, the council passed a series of resolutions that awarded a contract for the demolition of 86 Main Street, the location of the recently borough-purchased Sullivan’s Service Center, and authorized Colliers Engineering and Design to conduct a scope of work for community mapping services.
The council awarded the bid to demolish the structure to Greg Lertch Demolition Excavating LLC for the price of $24,500. According to Flarity, the demolition is slated to occur the week of Sept. 16.
The council passed a resolution that retained the borough’s engineer firm to provide a scope of work for two community-mapping projects.
Mayor Mangan said, “This authorizes Colliers to do a professional update of all the borough’s maps including drainage maps, flood maps, we’re looking to map up potential bike routes, we’re looking to map out tree plantings. There’s a whole host of basically high tech maps that will be developed and used to plan out future infrastructure and community upgrades. So even though developing the maps doesn’t do anything in and of itself, it’s going to be a huge planning tool going forward and I’m really glad we got to move that forward tonight.”
The next Manasquan borough council meeting will be held on Sept. 16 at the Manasquan Borough Hall at 7:00 p.m.
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