Striving to clean up various vacant properties, the Hazlet Township Committee approved a resolution that will put a municipal lien on parcels that are neglected.
The grass and weeds are overgrown on various properties in the township and the grass and weeds have created a hazardous condition to the health and welfare of the area residents, according to the committee agenda.
In the past residents have complained about various abandoned properties with overgrown grass and weeds throughout the township, according to Mayor Sue Kiley.
The township has undertaken the necessary clean-up to preserve the health and welfare of the area residents and correct this dangerous condition, according to the committee agenda.
The committee approved the resolution during its monthly meeting, on Oct. 3, at the municipal building.
“It’s not the first time we have done it and every time we do it, we do a resolution saying which properties we are going to tackle. It is kind of a standard procedure that when we have enough of them that we have to address and that we are going to start billing for the clean up, then we put a resolution together, get it on the record, and off we go,” Kiley said.
The cost for clean up plus an administrative fee, be assessed as a municipal lien against the properties and shall be collected in the same manner, bearing interest at the same rate as taxes, according to the committee agenda.
A lien is a bill that the township is going to put against the owners of the vacant properties, according to Kiley.
Kiley said, the township will probably began cleaning the properties immediately, however it depends on officials at township’s Department of Public Works and what their work load is.
The committee also passed a resolution authorizing the township engineer to executive progress payment estimate number two for MECO, Inc., for improvements to Laurel Avenue Phase III in the amount of $101,104.09, according to the committee agenda.
According to Kiley, Laurel Avenue needed to be repaved and the resolution approves the payments for MECO Inc., to repave the road.
“Every year we apply for grants. We are rewarded the grants for specific streets, Laurel Avenue happens to be one of them and let’s say something like Laurel Avenue is going to cost a lot more money than one grant,” Kiley said. “We would do Laurel Avenue phase I, phase II, [and] phase III. [It] does not mean we are doing all of Laurel Avenue, it means that we are getting as much done as we can with the grant money, so there might be two or three applications to get the grant money to do the whole thing.”
The committee also approved a resolution to submit a grant application and execute a grant contract with the New Jersey Department of Transportation for the improvements to Park Avenue and Franciscan Way project, according to the committee agenda.
According to Kiley, the township is applying for the grant to fund repaving and curb improvements that for Park Avenue and Franciscan Way.
The grant the township is applying for is a matching grant, so whatever the total amount, the township will match half of the amount needed to do the improvements, according to Kiley.
The township has already applied for the grant, according to Kiley.
For more information visit www.hazlettwp.org/agendasminutes.
Contact Vashti Harris at vharris@newspapermediagroup.com.
