By: Joseph L. Kuchie

SOUTH AMBOY – The South Amboy council began discussions to amend the city’s current garbage ordinance at last week’s business meeting.

The current ordinance, which was passed in 2015, was developed to clean up the streets of South Amboy and prevent residents and businesses from leaving garbage on the curb for long periods of time. Currently the ordinance states that residents can not bring their garbage cans to the curb until 6:00 p.m., but Mayor Henry asked the council to consider changing it to an earlier time to reflect the sun going down earlier in the winter months.

After a brief discussion, the council agreed in principle to change the time from 6:00 p.m. to either 4 or 4:30 p.m. between November 1 and March 31. The time between April 1 and October 31 would remain 6:00 p.m.

The city also discussed the fines and court appearance tied to the ordinance. The ordinance states that residents and businesses will be fined for their first and second offense and would have a mandatory court appearance for a third offense and beyond, but the council believes that residents have been required to come to court on their first offense.

Mayor Henry promised to speak with code enforcement to ensure that residents were being ticketed properly for the first two offenses.

Council President Mickey Gross asked City Attorney John Lanza to begin developing an amendment for the current ordinance. Once drafted it would need to be voted upon by the council and the public would be able to speak about it at an upcoming council meeting.

Mayor Henry also gave an update on the Business Administrator role.

According to Henry, he and Council President Gross will be interviewing three candidates at City Hall on January 19th in hopes of hiring someone as soon as possible. Mayor Henry has been taking on the responsibilities of Business Administrator after Stacey Kennedy resigned earlier this month.

Councilman Tom Reilly announced that the city will be hosting another business breakfast at the Broadway Diner on February 24th from 9 – 11 a.m. There will also be a small business workshop at the South Amboy Library on January 22nd.

All council members were in attendance for the city business meeting. The next city council meeting will be held on January 31st at 7:00 p.m.