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Jersey Shore mayor resigns

JERSEY SHORE — Residents of the borough who have a yearning to be mayor can submit their applications for the position following the resignation of Mayor Sally Ann Combs at this week’s borough council meeting.

Combs, who has been mayor for four months, has moved from the borough, which prompted the resignation.

Council has 30 days to fill the position. According to Cody Hoover, borough manager, the position will be advertised and personnel reviews conducted before a replacement is chosen. Council accepted the mayor’s resignation.

With the cost of paving streets and alleys in the borough totalling $780,000, council voted to move forward with a pared down option focusing on main streets and postponing alleys until later dates.

“Paving is through the roof right now because of supplies, because of oil, so it’s going to be a tough year to do that,” Hoover council.

He offered two options for council to choose from.

Option one involves paving Locust Street all the way to just before Citizen’s Hose, which would be from South Main all the way up through, Hoover said. Hoover noted that Kerr Avenue would also be included in the cost due to its deteriorating condition. Total cost of that is estimated at $272.994.

“This would allow us to do Locust Street, which is a main thoroughfare through the borough. It covers both the lower end of the borough and the upper end of the borough,” he said.

Hoover suggested using $200,000 from the borough’s liquid fuels allotment. Remaining costs of that option would come from the general fund.

The second option from Hoover would include paving some alleys and a portion of Locust Street from South Main Street to Poplar Street, which would not include the portion near the Middle and High Schools. Cost for that is estimated at $183,420 for streets, which could utilize monies from liquid fuels and another $56,504 for the alley, which would be financed through the general fund.

“My thought is, I’d like to do alleys — they’ve been let go for so long,” Hoover said, adding that it might be better to wait, “take a break from alleys to see if prices of paving come back down.”

When asked if the alleys posed a hazard in their present condition, Hoover replied, “They’re going to be what they’re going to be. If you go across the alleys, there are alleys that are terrible to plow, but they’re alleys.

“I wish tomorrow I had the money to write a check out and do all the alleys because they need it, but we have to look at the limited resources that we have,” he said.

“We could literally drain the entire general fund just on alleys if we did them across the borough,” he added.

Council president Sean Simcox said that by taking care of the main thoroughfares, such as Locust Street, shows visitors and prospective residents that the borough cares for its infrastructure.

Council voted to go with the first option and defer work on the alleys.

An extension to April 30, 2072 was granted to the Jersey Shore Area Joint Water Authority. Because of the authority taking on debt that would go that far into the future, the extension was needed to assure that the authority would retain ownership for that length of time.

In other actions, council voted to advertise an ordinance pertaining to parking regulation in the borough and the stop sign ordinance.

With the change in the parking regulation ordinance, there will be no parking on the northern side of Locust Street from the westerly side of the intersection of Wilson Street and Locust Street for the distance of 90 feet in the westerly direction. The ordinances will be voted on at next month’s meeting.

It was noted that the change was prompted by a school traffic issue.

The stop sign ordinance relates to placing a stop sign at West Alley which was recommended following a traffic study.

Other actions taken by council included:

• Approving $14,700 to Larson Design Group for work on trail connection with Allegheny Street. Council also approved $4,900 for Larson for the Lawshee Run Inspection.

• Accepting a quote of $3,175 from Lecce Electric for traffic signal maintenance.

• Agreeing to hire Brownie’s Signs to construct two signs for the borough at a cost of $5,900.

• A request for the borough to pay half of the cost of training new constables was voted down.

• A disabled veterans real property tax exemption certification for Kenneth Scheesley was granted by council.

The next meeting will be at 7 p.m. May 10, at the Borough Building, 232 Smith St.

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