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Upcoming Meetings Project of the Year Awards Deadline NJSME Member Directory NJSME Member Directory By now you should have received your copy of the 2007 NJSME Member Directory. We encourage you to double check your information to ensure we have the most accurate and up to date listing for you. We rely on information provided to us from your town, and sometimes we do not get the best information available. We appreciate your efforts to continue to make the Directory a valuable resource for all of our members.
Come out to our next General Membership Meeting on Wednesday, September 12th. Our first speaker will be Charles Ingoglia, Director Public Affairs, New Jersey Transit and he will be discussing:
Our second presentation will be an overview of the brand new joint agreement recently signed by the NJSME and the NJUA. This pilot program has been created that will allow for mark up mark out or record plans to be used for design purposes. We will discuss how this pilot program will work and go over the exchange of information that will allow for members of NJSME to work better with the major utilities companies in the state.
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By Carl Peters I’m surprised to find that we have already arrived at the middle of my year as president. The time has gone quickly because the society has decided to focus upon several goals that, I believe, are greatly beneficial to the practice of our profession. I’m thrilled to report that NJSME has reached a tentative agreement with the NJ Utilities Association regarding the location of utilities for design purposes. We plan to ratify, within the next month, a cooperative pilot program with NJUA that will require utilities to provide location information to Municipal Engineers during the design process. They will either provide a field mark out, mark up a set of our base plans or provide us with a copy of their record plans within thirty days from the receipt of a request. NJUA will also provide a database for each of their member utilities that indicates contact information and the type of location information a utility plans to provide. The pilot program will run for twelve months. During that time members of both NJUA and NJSME will be asked to critique the process to see how effective it is. Since there are many utilities that are not members of NJUA we may still need to pursue legislation to make this process mandatory. We believe, however, that the results of the pilot program will strengthen our position if a legislative solution is required in the future. We will notify the membership of all of the details of the pilot program as soon as it has been ratified by both presidents. Thanks are due to the MOMURP Committee, Art Vitale, Chairman. Another goal that I have set for this year is to create a better rapport among NJSME and the many organizations for professionals with whom we interact on a regular basis. These groups include Municipal Attorneys, Code Officials, Land Surveyors, Planners, Architects and other Engineers. Our outreach plan includes setting up joint meetings with these groups to discuss matters about which we need to interface. Last year we started this process by running a joint meeting with the Municipal Attorneys at the League of Municipalities Conference. We intend to do that again this year. In June, we held a meeting with the Building and Construction Officials. As a member of both groups, I have felt that there are ways that we can work more effectively simply by understanding the responsibilities and limits of responsibility of the other party. This program was a precursor to the joint meeting we have planned at the league with MUNCO and BOANJ. It is my hope that these types of efforts will help to promote the profession of Municipal Engineering. As a group we are better at getting the job done than in marketing ourselves. Increasing the prestige of the Municipal Engineer and improving our ability to provide services to our clients is a fundamental reason for the existence of NJSME. In order for the society to make the most progress, we need broader participation from the membership. Increasing member participation in NJSME activities is one of the points in our strategic plan for this year. Please call me or the other officers to discuss your vision for NJSME and hopefully you desire to volunteer.
NJSME Project of the Year Awards –
A. Municipal Construction Projects B. Municipal Construction Projects – Populations under 20,000 C. Municipal Construction Projects – Populations 20,000 and above (Consultant appointed as Municipal Engineer) D. Municipal Parks/Recreation Projects E. Municipal Management Projects F. New! Municipal Construction Management Projects G. New! Municipal Projects Involving Intergovernmental Cooperation (Full-time, Part-time Engineer or Consultant)
If you have any questions or need a copy of the application form please contact Lori Lee at NJSME Headquarters. As always we remind you that participation is not only of value to you and your municipality through favorable publicity, but to the Municipal Engineering profession as a whole—please participate! June Meeting a Success At the June 6th General Membership meeting, NJSME was pleased to host a very well attended Panel Discussion with members of New Jersey Building Officials Association. The Panel included President Peters, Past President Ten Kate, Past President Zilinek, Construction Official Vince Lupo and Construction Official Alex Petroni. The discussions covered both procedural and jurisdictional remedies requiring cooperation between Municipal Engineers and Construction Code Officials between plan reviews and site inspections, from the Planning Board/Zoning Board of Adjustment processes inherent in Municipal Land Use Law to fully conforming Building Permit processes inherent in the NJ Uniform Construction Code. The discussions were both lively and constructive. As an example, the need for including Construction Officials in planning processes regarding Accessible Ramps is based on requirements in New Jersey’s Barrier Free Subcode, which governs design (not the more widely distributed ADA guidelines that are often used by architects and engineers). The procedural requirement can save applicants from returning to a Board, having to pay for plan changes, or even more costly field changes if the non-compliance is discovered during the construction process. It also saves the municipal staff the inconvenience and expense of multiple reviews, or having to explain how State and Local rules governing plan review do not always adequately define good jurisdiction and procedure for such reviews. Prior Approvals are getting too numerous to mention, let alone be able to track and enforce. Land Use Board resolutions, Highway & Road Access permits, Sewer Extension permits, Water Allocation permits, Floodplain/Stormwater permits, Zoning Office approvals, Health Office approvals, Soil Conservation permits, Environmental Commission reviews, Historic Commission reviews, Sign Committee reviews, Shade Tree reviews, and on and on … what is a Technical Assistant to do ? The Panel discussed the need for comprehensive checklists and a well defined referral process that was necessary to be defined locally, since generally the process in the laws authorizing such prior approvals was not well defined. The referral process was discussed in context of ordinance proposals for local Site Improvement permits, or using Special Inspection proposals to include Municipal Engineers in fully conforming building projects from beginning to end, without having to be called out late in the game and after a significant problem is discovered the day before Certificate of Occupancy is requested. In many municipalities, the requirement for Continued Certificates of Occupancy (or Continued Building Compliance) were an avenue to gain compliance not only for Building Safety issues but for such items as illegal sewer connections, non-complaint site or structural issues or even coverage violations. Regarding issuance of Certificates of Occupancy, it was suggested the only way to assure site improvements of fully conforming buildings are completed under current law, is for the Construction Official to require the posting of a Site Improvement Bond with conditions in the Certificate of Occupancy to address the Municipal Engineering Site Review comments. Again, having a procedure in place which assured periodic site inspections by a municipal engineer during the construction process of even single family homes was seen as an important communication between Construction Official, Contractor and Municipal Engineer. It was clarified that under Residential Site Improvement Standards, the Municipal Engineer may advise the Construction Official to enforce certain site provisions. Municipal Engineers are in many ways uniquely qualified to perform Special Inspections, whether for Foundation, Reinforcement, Steel or other areas of involvement. Regular involvement and communication with the Municipal Engineer, whether he be a consultant or staff employee, was agreed to be a key component in a successful local building safety, site improvement and land use regulation program. Often, finding a legitimate regulation, ordinance or procedure to assure this communication is as important as the proactive step of making the communication. To assure constant improvement in this regard the NJSME will be co-sponsoring, with BOANJ and MUNCO, a special informational session at the League of Municipalities Convention this fall, where it is hoped an expanded discussion of both problems and solutions will provide educational value to legislative groups, interested staff and consultants alike.
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| NJSME and NJUA Reach Agreement on Utilities Information For Design Purposes By Art Vitale Obtaining existing utilities information for design purposes is often a frustrating and time-consuming process. NJSME has had a committee working with NJUA and its member utilities (the NJ investor utilities only) to try to reach an agreement by which NJSME members can readily obtain information from the NJUA member utilities. After 3 meetings with management of the NJUA member utilities and the NJSME MoMuRp Committee, a tentative agreement for a pilot program with NJUA has been reached. The agreement was approved by the Executive Committee on July 25, 2007, and has been forwarded to NJUA for their final approval. The agreement is still “tentative” because NJSME was advised that NJUA wanted to obtain any comments that the NJ Bureau of Public Utilities might have before finalizing tentative agreement. The basic elements of the tentative agreement are that the member utilities would provide, at their option, a mark-out (Mo), or a mark-up of the municipal engineer’s plans (Mo), or provide their record plan (hence the acronym “MoMuRp” for the program). The Further details will be provided to the NJSME membership after the (anticipated) ratification of the agreement by NJUA.”
ME Quarterly Newsletter Layout/Graphics The opinions expressed in
bylined articles are those of the authors and do not represent the opinions
of NJSME. The authors are solely responsible for the information contained
in those articles. |
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