Oceanport briefs: Recycling yard may cut back hours

Originally published July 28, 2011

By Neil Schulman

Oceanport — While residents take advantage of Oceanport’s recycling yard’s extra hours, for some days it seems to be a waste of manpower.
Borough Administrator Kim Jungfer said that the public works department has been open extra hours for residents to drop off recyclables. This requires keeping an employee at the yard.

In recent weeks, they’ve been counting cars to see how many residents take advantage of it. Jungfer said that weekends, especially Saturday, many people take advantage. On many weekdays, the extra hours are almost never used.

“We’re paying someone to essentially sit there and do nothing,” she said.
Jungfer checked with nearby municipalities, and many of them only offer access to the recycling bins during the public works departments’ normal hours, with no weekend pickup at all.

In general, the yard is seeing less activity this year. That’s because Oceanport has greatly increased the amount of curbside recycling it offers to residents.

Few issues with dodge ball

Letting an adult dodge ball league use the tennis courts has caused few problems.

Until recently, the league had played in the place most people associate with dodge ball — the school gyms. However, those were unavailable for the summer, and the group looked for a place which was fenced in, so that stray balls could be easily managed.

The tennis courts at Blackberry Bay Park fit that description. However, some tennis players were worried the play could damage the courts, especially since the nets were not designed for the comparatively heavy dodge balls.

Councilman Jerry Bertekap, liaison to the recreation committee, says that so far, there have been no problems.

However, Councilwoman Ellynn Kahle said that some tennis players have complained that dodge ball players are leaning on the net.

In other Blackberry Bay news, Engineer Bill White reported that one of the sprinkler systems had become damaged after one of the pipes sprung a leak.
The soil in the area is acidic, and has “heavily corroded” the pipe, he said.

“Even though it’s a galvanized (steel) pipe, it’s severely pitted.”
The replacement would have a protective lining.