By Joseph L. Kuchie—

SOUTH AMBOY — Business Administrator Camille Tooker and the South Amboy council discussed the plan to waive permit fees for residents still rebuilding from Hurricane Sandy.

The prior date to waive permit fees only went up until Dec. 2012, and some residents have shown their frustration with potentially having to pay extra to fix their storm-stricken homes. Tooker acknowledged that many locals have not completed their construction and it would be in the best interest of South Amboy to continue waiving the permit fees.

“There are many residents that have not completed repairs. I’ve gotten several calls and I’ve instructed Tom Kelly to continue to waive the fees for only Sandy damage repairs,” she said.

Tooker did emphasize, however, that the permit fees would only be waived for damage done during the storm. Not making that clear would allow residents to get extra work done without having to pay a fee.

“Some of the people when they were doing the work would do additional work just because they had a contractor there,” Tooker explained. “It’s important that we don’t wave all the fees just because the address was affected by Sandy.”

Tooker made it clear that it was the council’s job to take care of the residents still struggling after Sandy hit and that it was important to extend the date. She also noted that South Amboy would set the tone for the rest of the state, as they would also waive their fees if the city did the same.

“What we need to do as a council is take care of these residents…we have to set another date,” she added. “If we decide to waive our fees, the state would follow and waive their fees as well.”

Council President Joseph Connors asked Tooker if they could extend the date to the end of the year and, if necessary, extend it further in 2014. Tooker said that was possible and Connors suggested that be the move the council make.

The council has also decided to move the July 3rd business meeting to July 10th at 6:00 p.m. The regular council meeting will still be held on July 17th.