Menendez, Booker announce $3M in aid for North Hudson Sewage Authority plant
U.S. Senators Bob Menendez and Cory Booker today announced the awarding of a $2,990,908.35 Sandy relief grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the North Hudson Sewage Authority to replace electrical feeder cables at the Hoboken waste water plant that was damaged as a result of Superstorm Sandy.
“This federal funding will bring our state one step further down the path to full recovery from Superstorm Sandy,” said Menendez. “Our infrastructure took a beating during Sandy and it is absolutely critical we rebuild it better and more resilient to withstand the next storm.”
“Nearly three years later, New Jersey communities are still recovering from the devastation of Superstorm Sandy,” Booker said. “The funding announced today will move our state one step further along the road to recovery, and make New Jersey stronger in the face of the next natural storm. We’ll keep working until every family and every community is made whole again.”
In 2013, the President signed the Superstorm Sandy Supplemental Appropriations bill into law, bringing the total Sandy aid enacted by Congress to $60.2 billion. The funding package included federal aid to help homeowners, businesses, and communities recover, and resources to rebuild coastal, transportation, and water infrastructure.
Let your voice be heard on flooding in Hoboken
Hoboken officials propose to use nature-based “green infrastructure” solutions to relieve chronic flooding in the city. A Rutgers led-project asks Hoboken residents to complete a Hoboken Resident Community Health and Resilience Survey. The survey is an effort to gather input about the effects of chronic flooding on health. Respondents will also have the chance to share their opinions on potential solutions to limit future flooding.
The survey can be found online at www.njhic.rutgers.edu/hobokensurvey/.
As part of post-Sandy recovery, the city of Hoboken is working on strategies to better manage stormwater throughout the city, a major cause of water pollution and flooding. When the rain falls on roofs, streets and parking lots, the water cannot soak into the ground. This causes flooding throughout the city, as well as pollution of nearby bodies of water.
Hoboken is served by a combined sewer system, which collects rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater in the same pipes. Sometimes, heavy rainfall exceeds the system’s capacity, resulting in overflows that carry diluted human and industrial waste, toxic materials, and debris into streets, basements and waterways. The city’s flooding and combined sewer overflows can seriously impact residents’ health.
To better manage stormwater runoff, city officials propose Green Infrastructure as part of its updated stormwater management plan. Green infrastructure uses plants, soil, and natural systems to manage water, reduce flooding, and create a healthier urban environment.
Using data from the survey, a team of Rutgers researchers will produce a Health Impact Assessment of the proposed changes to the Hoboken Stormwater Management Plan and make recommendations to the Hoboken Planning Board and City Council concerning the potential positive and negative health impacts of the green infrastructure strategies under consideration. Results of the survey will be presented at a public forum in the fall.
For more information please contact Miriam Salerno, Senior Public Relations Specialist, at (848) 932-2876 or Miriam.salerno@ejb.rutgers.edu or Elaine Clisham at New Jersey Future at (609) 393-0008 or eclisham@njfuture.org.
Amtrak chairman says Hudson train tunnel is on track
A new train tunnel linking New York and New Jersey, seen by experts as crucial to relieving the bottleneck under the Hudson River, is on the verge of getting underway, according to a story in Crain’s New York Business.
“We’re doing it,” Amtrak Chairman Anthony Coscia told the Crain’s editorial board Wednesday.
Coscia said Amtrak could begin the environmental review process this fall, and has already spent about $300 million on preparatory work and land acquisition, even though the estimated $15 billion needed for the larger Gateway project, which includes the tunnel, has not been lined up.
By Coscia’s reckoning, a tunnel has to be built sooner or later, and sooner is better. The two heavy-rail tunnels connecting New Jersey and New York are over a century old and outmoded. Officials predict that within 20 years, one or both tunnels will need to be closed for repairs. That would reduce capacity to six trains per hour, down from 24 trains per hour now.
Undersecretary of Transportation Peter Rogoff said recently the Gateway was “the most important rail project in the United States.”
Funding for the project isn’t set yet. Coscia said Amtrak has sketched out a potential financing package that includes federal funds, infrastructure bonds and Amtrak’s own cash. The project’s numerous stakeholders can be expected to chip in, which would include the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, New Jersey Transit, New York City, the states of New York and New Jersey, the federal government and of course Amtrak.
The Gateway project was unveiled in February 2011 after New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, citing potential cost overruns, killed another project called Access to the Region’s Core, which was to include a train tunnel under the Hudson.
The new rail lines would boost commuter capacity on New Jersey Transit by 75 percent, relieving what is considered the worst transit bottleneck in the country. Gateway would also allow Amtrak to expand its high-speed Acela service, which is necessary for the development of state-supported high-speed rail in New York.
Catch POLKA DOT! Ron Albanese this Tuesday
As part of Hoboken’s “Family Fun Nights,” school teacher, parent, and Hoboken-born kiddie entertainer Ron Albanese (POLKA DOT!) will be appearing in concert at Shipyard Park on July 14 at 7 p.m. POLKA DOT! shows are legendary in the mile-square city, yearly “kiddie rock ‘n’ roll” for the whole family. Come sing, dance, and rock out with POLKA DOT!
Shipyard Park location: 13th Street & McFeeley Drive.
Stevens Ocean Researchers Selected to Serve on NYC Panel on Climate Change
Stevens Institute of Technology researchers and ocean physicists Dr. Alan Blumberg and Dr. Philip Orton have been selected to join the Third New York City Panel on Climate Change (NPCC3) to advise New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the administration’s climate policy leadership on climate change projections and adaptation. The kickoff meeting for the panel was held today at New York City’s City Hall.
The New York City Panel on Climate Change is an independent body that advises the City on climate risks and resiliency.
The last NPCC report, Building the Knowledge Base for Climate Resiliency, released earlier this year, focused on increasing the current and future resiliency of communities, citywide systems, and infrastructure around New York City and the broader metropolitan region. NPCC3 will build on that report by examining climate risks through the lens of inequality at a neighborhood scale.
NPCC3 will also focus on ways to enhance coordination of mitigation and resiliency across the entire New York metropolitan region. The panel’s report is due early next year.
Both Blumberg and Orton were technical contributors to NPCC2 from 2013-2015. In an increased role Blumberg will provide subject matter expertise to help define the goals and develop plans for accomplishing the tasks set out in NPCC3’s scope of work.
Blumberg is the George Meade Bond Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering in the Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science at Stevens. He is also the Director of the Davidson Laboratory which has a focus on assessing, predicting and mitigating the damage of natural and man-made disasters. The Davidson Laboratory is one of the largest hydrodynamic and ocean engineering laboratories in the world and is renowned for its naval engineering tow tank facilities.
Orton previously served as a technical contributor to the New York City Special Initiative on Rebuilding and Resilience. He is joining the NPCC3 technical team to develop and test prototype climate change indicators, monitoring systems and mapping.
Mile Square Theatre presents ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ on the Hoboken waterfront
Beginning July 22, Mile Square Theatre (MST) will host 11 performances of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Frank Sinatra Park on the Hoboken waterfront. In honor of Sinatra’s looming 100th birthday, MST will transport the randy teens of “Midsummer” from medieval Greece to 1950s Hoboken, the rough-and-tumble world of longshoremen and poodle skirts made famous by “On the Waterfront.” The Hobokenized version of the comedy was first performed by MST in 2007.
“We are thrilled to bring this production back this year, which marks Frank Sinatra’s 100 birthday,” says MST Artistic Director Chris O’Connor, who will direct the show. “The show is set during Sinatra’s heyday and is underscored with his music. The world of Theseus is the Rat Pack and the young lovers are bobby soxers.”
Thanks in part to $35,000 in grants from Hudson County and the city of Hoboken, MST was able to hire a full cast of Equity actors and actresses for “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” including Matthew Lawler, seen on Netflix’s “House of Cards,” Lou Carbonneau from “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Law and Order,” and Dillon Heape from the American Conservatory Theatre.
The play will be performed on July 22, 25, 26, 27, 28, and August 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, and 9 at the amphitheatre in Frank Sinatra Park, located near Fourth Street and Sinatra Drive. All performances are free to the public, begin at 8 p.m., and run 90 minutes without intermission.
Public comment period for Rebuild by Design Citizen Outreach Plan now open
The Rebuild by Design Citizen Outreach Plan has been posted online for public comment for the next 30 days. A copy of the plan can be found at http://www.nj.gov/dep/floodhazard/docs/rdb-hudson-plan.pdf.
Should you chose to comment, please submit your comments to the NJDEP via email to: rbd-hudsonriver@dep.nj.gov or by mail to David Rosenblatt, Director, Office of Flood Hazard Risk Reduction Measures, 501 East State Street, Mail Code 501-01A, PO Box 420, Trenton, NJ 08625-0420. All comments must be received by Aug. 2, 2015.
Sixth Annual Butterfly Day is July 26
The highly-anticipated Butterfly Festival is back. Join a fun-filled day of butterfly walks and identification techniques, plus many free activities for the kids, on Sunday, July 26. Children 12 and under can join a butterfly costume contest. Butterfly Day is co-sponsored by the Bergen County Audubon Society and the North American Butterfly Association.
This free event takes place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Meadowlands Environment Center,
2 DeKorte Park Plaza, Lyndhurst.