 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
We are looking forward to another competitive year of applications for the Project of the Year Awards. As you are aware, we have expanded the program in recent year’s to best capture a variety of projects, and the response has been great. As in the past, all award winners will be honored at the NJSME’s annual Luncheon at the League of Municipalities Conference in Atlantic City. This year’s deadline for applications is September 19th, so don’t delay - send us your submissions!
New Jersey Quality Initiative Utility Subcommittee
|
|
By: C. Richard Roseberry P.E., C.M.E. As I enter the second half of my term as the President of the New Jersey Society of Municipal Engineers, I would like to thank the many members of our organization who volunteer their time for the advancement of our profession. Specific recognition goes to the new members of the Society’s Executive Committee: John Medina, Al Yodakis, James Parvesse, and Stanley Shreck. Following the success that the Executive Committee had last year negotiating modifications to exclude most local aid projects from the “Cost Escalation” bill, our Legislative Committee entered the year energized and ready to tackle new challenges. Led by Rich Moralle, we have been meeting with the DEP to press forward with our proposal to permit the Municipal Engineer to review all development stormwater management plans regardless of whether or not it needs a DEP permit. This proposal, if accepted, will eliminate duplicate reviews and streamline the approval process. The DEP has shown definite interest in this proposal since it will reduce their backlog and workload. Other legislation that we have been following are attempts to make the asphalt price adjustment mandatory and a proposal by the DOT to relinquish their review of traffic ordinances to the Municipal Engineer. Matt Halpin’s office has been doing an excellent job providing our legislative committee with timely status reports on legislative activity. The MOMURP (Markout/Markup/Record Plan) subcommittee, which is chaired by Bob Vogel, continues to monitor the effectiveness of the agreement negotiated last year between our Society and the New Jersey Utilities Association. I am happy to say that the agreement appears to be working as intended and the numbers of complaints are minimal. We have received a request from the New Jersey Land Surveyors Association to expand this agreement to include members of their organization. As our goal has always been to obtain utility information during the design phase of a project for all professionals, we will be bringing this request to the table during our next round of negotiations with the NJUA. Several members of our Society, including myself, have been selected to serve on the NJDEP Municipal Stormwater Permit Advisory Group to discuss proposed changes to the Municipal NJPDES General Permit, which expires in March 2009. This group includes engineers, activists, government officials, and representatives from several non-profit environmental organizations. The DEP is proposing substantial modifications to the permit conditions based on the experience gained during the last 5 years. By serving on this group, we hope to be able to bring these modifications to the Society for comments before they are advertised in the NJ Register. Our General Membership meetings have been well attended and we are planning to provide informative and useful topics for our meetings throughout the year. Recently, our Society re-evaluated our Strategic Plan to guide us over the next several years. This plan will be posted on our website for everyone to review. If you have any comments or suggestions on how the Society can serve you better, please call or email me at rroseberry@maserconsulting.com. Thank you.
CME Course Deadline Approaching Don’t miss out on the 2008-2009 CME Program – Registration ends September 1st. For more information, including this year’s schedule and registration forms please go to: http://www.njsme.org/pdf/cmeBrochure708.pdf
A federally funded consortium of stakeholder groups has been formed nationally to address pipeline safety improvement issues and the New Jersey Common Ground Alliance (NJCGA) has been meeting with the purpose of ensuring public safety, education, environmental protection, and integrity of services by promoting effective damage prevention practices. Meetings have been held at the Rutgers University, Center for Advanced Infrastructure & Transportation (CAIT) building in New Brunswick, New Jersey Natural Gas headquarters in Wall, Public Service Electric & Gas facilities in Edison, and other locations as the alliance continues to grow in size and diversity. The NJSME has attended and presented its own perspectives in several of the meetings and will continue as a stakeholder group to represent the interests of Municipal Engineers statewide. For more information about the Alliance, you can visit: http://www.commongroundalliance.com/
|
|
|
||
|
|||||||
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. |
|||||||
|
|||||||
 |
|||||||
