The Borough Council will hold a public hearing April 10 on an emergency expense ordinance to replace a broken pump at the Maple Road sewer pump station.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Mayor Nicholas Giordano said that during one of the power outages caused by storms in March, the pump would not return to service. The station has two pumps.
The ordinance calls for the expenditure of a sum not to exceed US $20,000 for replacement of the pump.
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the council agreed to terms with the union that represents workers within the Department of Public Works for a new contract through the end of 2020.
The new contract calls for annual raises of 1.5 percent this year, in 2019 and in 2020.
There were no other major changes in the agreement.
Borough Administrator Alison McHose said the borough has received two grants that will be used in the Franklin Pond area.
One grant is from the YMCA for fitness stations along the walking path around the pond.
Those stations are places where people can do standard exercises, ranging from simple bars to help with stretching exercises, to benches for doing sit-ups and horizontal ladders for hand-over-hand exercises.
The second grant came from the Sussex County Division of Aging to expand the senior garden that the borough began last year near the Senior Center.
Rent for cell towers
The council also agreed to seek bids from consultants to help with negotiations with companies that currently rent space on borough property for cell towers to provide cell service.
Although the lease agreements have not expired, Borough Attorney John Ursin said the companies are seeking reduced rents with the threat of new technology that can replace the massive structures.
Among direct-to-direct technology, one area is being filled by Qualcomm’s LTE Direct, which allows equipped cell phones to talk directly to each other within about 500 m without draining a unit’s batteries. The system will also allow a cell phone to serve as a relay, in effect becoming a small version of a cell tower.
Another growth area is the installation of “small cell” antennas, which are much smaller as the name implies and take up much less space.
Those types of antennas can be mounted on existing utility poles or on the roofs of taller buildings in an area.
Some consultants note that just because an antenna is smaller, it’s the call capacity that matters.
Ursin said that the fee charged the borough by an outside consulting agency “is less than one month of what the (proposed rent) reduction is,” and said that while he was confident in negotiating on Franklin’s behalf, “I have to understand to maximize your returns.”
Councilwoman Dawn Fantasia said that Ursin “is the third attorney who has recommended we hire outside,” and said that makes a good argument that a consultant should be sought.
And, in another lease agreement in search of a possible change, the council agreed to begin looking for an alternate location to lease as a small community center, especially for youth groups.
“Youth groups want some place in the center of town they can walk to,” Councilman John Postas said.
The discussion came as the council was voting on a one-year agreement to lease the Littell Community Center for US $26,000.
“We need start acting now to have something for next year,” Fantasia said.
The council voted 6-0 to accept the shared services agreement with the Littell center but also agreed to search for a location more centrally located where youth can easily walk.
