Tom Cross addresses the Council. *Photo by Joseph L. Kuchie

By Joseph L. Kuchie —

SOUTH AMBOY — During his opening comments at last week’s council meeting, Mayor Fred Henry announced that the city of South Amboy has officially finished work on the Tideland grants.

Concerns from local residents grew back in July when a grant from the Bureau of Tideland Management was pending approval for the city. Lori Papernick was one of the more vocal residents, saying that people were losing sales on their homes because of the problem and weren’t getting title insurance.

Since then, the city worked relentlessly trying to solve the issues and bring it to a close. Mayor Henry praised the work of Law Director John Lanza and City Engineer Mark Rasimowicz and was happy to announce that everything was taken care of.

“Recently there have been talks about the Tideland grants near the waterfront. At this point the Tideland Grants have been completed and filed and everything is as it should be,” Henry said. “ I want to thank Law Director John Lanza and City Engineer Mark Rasimowicz for all the time they put in for this. It’s a long time coming but it is finally at a close.”

Councilmen at Large Mickey Gross also thanked them for their hard work, and explained to the public that the process was a lot harder then it seemed. Gross also acknowledged the work of Mayor Henry through everything that was done.

“We should add our Mayor to that list of names. He did a lot of work on that project,“ Gross said. “A lot of people from my office were talking about it and it was a lot harder then you guys made it seem. You did a great job. You made it look simple and my hat is off to you.”

During the public comments, many residents raised concerns about the recent Optimum cable box prices. Resident Tom Cross of Second Street brought it to the council’s attention that Optimum was charging $7 per box in every home.

“Optimum is raising the prices and forcing us to get a cable box for every television we have in our homes. If you have five televisions in your home, that‘s $35 on top of the outrageous price they already charge” Cross said. “They are charging this ridiculous amount, but don’t they have to come through you to have this happen?”

Resident Eileen Ryan brought clarity to the situation, saying that if residents already have a box, you don’t have to pay the extra charge. The only residents that will have to pay the extra $7 per box are those who didn’t have the box to begin with.

The next South Amboy council meeting will be held tonight, October 3rd at 7:00 p.m.