Boro signs for $1.3M state loan to dredge lake
Mayor: Dredging to save lake a one-time project
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

WEST LONG BRANCH -- A check for more than $1 million to fund the dredging of Franklin Lake should soon be on its way to Borough Hall.

For the town's officials, especially Mayor Janet W. Tucci, the long wait for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) check to be used to pay for dredging of the lake off Locust Avenue will be worth it.

Although the money does have to be repaid, West Long Branch needs to seize the opportunity to the preserve its natural treasure by borrowing the 20-year, 2-percent interest loan now while the state is cooperating, Tucci said.

"The lake has never been dredged," Tucci said after the Borough Council unanimously voted on Nov. 1 to authorize her to sign the DEP loan agreement.

"Hopefully, it will only need to be dredged once," she continued.

The loan of $1,315,180 and the 2-percent interest rate will be paid out of a line item in future municipal budgets, Tucci has said.

To clean up and save the lake from drying up, the borough had applied for state funding through the DEP's low-interest loan program numerous times over recent years only to be turned down said Tucci, who first moved to protect the lake while she was a councilwoman.

With the input of several area state legislators, the DEP finally accepted an application filed by the borough in July 2005 and agreed to disperse the loan through the Dam, Lake, Stream, Flood Control, Water Resources and Wastewater Treatment Project Bond Act of 2003.

"We have applied numerous times to get state money for this," said Tucci, who was re-elected to the mayor's office on Nov. 7. "We are very fortunate to get this money."

The lake has been long- threatened by eutrophication, a condition that leaves the water deficient of oxygen in warmer temperatures and that can eventually cause drying up, said Tucci, who formerly served on the borough's environmental commission.

The dredging project also calls for a process called "desnagging" to clear any streams leading to the lake of excess vegetation.

Franklin Lake and its surrounding park have been the borough's venue for summer concerts, fireworks displays and charity events such as the annual Michael W. Thorne Scholarship Run in May.

To apply for the state DEP loan, borough officials based their request on estimates given by engineers who came up with figures of more than $1 million, Tucci has said.

In another matter, the council unanimously agreed to transfer appropriations for the borough's electric and telephone service, as shown in the adopted municipal budget, to the separate legal and engineering departments.

According to a copy of the approved resolution, $10,000 set aside for electricity will go to the borough's legal department and $5,000 designated for telephone service will be transferred to the municipal engineering account.

Borough laws allow for such monetary transfers to be made if necessary during the last two months of the calendar year covered by the adopted municipal budget, providing that two-thirds of the council approves the action, the resolution states.