$4.7M for road, bridge work OK’d

The Sussex County Board of County Commissioners approved an ordinance to spend about $4.7 million on road and bridge improvements at its meeting July 23.

The money is a grant from the state Department of Transportation.

The board also approved a one-year contract extension not to exceed $250,000 with Fire and Security Technologies of Lebanon for fire alarm services in county buildings.

Commissioner Jack DeGroot reported on a meeting that he and Commissioner Alan Henderson had with Cory Homer, president of Sussex County Community College (SCCC), and Herbert Yardley, chairman of the SCCC board of trustees.

Part-time enrollment has increased by 44 students and full-time enrollment by 66 students from a year earlier.

Construction continues on the optics center along with work on renovations of the learning commons and library and upgrades to the art gallery and adult transition center.

”In addition, coordination with Sussex Tech remains strong,” he said.

Safety action plan

Chris Carney, director of the board, said county officials have been working with the North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority to develop a Local Safety Action Plan, which suggests improvements to local roads to reduce deaths and serious injuries in accidents.

The plan was released in early July. County officials are reviewing it to suggest how it might be implemented, he said. ”The safety of county routes remains a high priority for this board.”

Carney said county officials plan to meet Thursday, Aug. 7 with state transportation officials about a project planned on Route 206 in Andover.

Work on a long culvert under the Lackawanna Cut-off is expected to take about nine months. ”It’s going to cause major traffic in that vicinity,” he said.

Jill Space, deputy director of the board, said work on revamping the county website has begun. It is expected to be finished by the end of this year.

The project was proposed two years ago to make the website more user-friendly.

Henderson described his visit to the Leroy Smith Public Safety Building, the former county jail in Newark that has been converted into office space.

He is strongly opposed to selling the former Sussex County Jail building. “I think the potential here is endless.”

At the beginning of the meeting, Henderson proposed that the board hold its executive session at the end of meeting rather than in the middle. No one seconded the motion.

Commissioner Bill Hayden was absent from the meeting.