Also at the meeting, former mayor Millard Wilkinson Jr. was honored with an award from the ICCA.
At its latest meeting, Berlin Borough Council passed an ordinance on first reading replacing the municipality’s economic development committee with a business advisory committee.
If passed on second reading next month, the committee will help to improve business development within the borough, as Mayor Jim Bilella says the current board intended to foster commercial growth has steadily weakened in recent years.
“For many years, our economic development committee has kind of languished,” he said.
The new committee, comprised of five members with one alternative, as opposed to the current group of nine members with three alternatives, will be staffed by borough business owners, including residents and nonresidents of Berlin.
Bilella says, considering the very nature of government, the economic development committee has very limited authority to do anything, as most of the power lies within council and the planning and zoning boards when it comes to commercial growth.
This frustration has led to several changes on the committee, including current members of council who served on the team.
“It left the committee with a lot of ideas and very little means to do anything. We came to realize it’s not where people come to really seek out how to best develop the town,” he said.
Using firsthand experience, the new advisory committee would guide council on regulations, ordinances and other general insight regarding how to attract and sustain businesses in Berlin — a long-term goal the borough has been working toward for the past few years.
Council plans to reach out to local business owners, including the Greater Berlin Business and Professional Association, to serve as potential members of this revamped approach toward economic growth.
“We’d hope they use it as an opportunity to help us help them,” Bilella said.
In other news:
- On second reading, council passed an ordinance that would amends the borough’s towing codes. In this revised law, a $50 storage fee will now be charged for the release of impounded vehicles.
- Council inserted a new grant worth $1,500 intended to help the patrolling of DWI checkpoints.
- Council inserted another new grant worth more than $3,000 into the 2018 municipal budget, which will be designated for volunteer fire assistance expenses.
- Councilman Dan MacDonnell, chairman of public works, streets and roads, presented an update on the road program, which is funded every year by the state Department of Transportation. The project is going out to bid this month, as council passed a resolution at the meeting to receive bids that will not exceed $400,000. Construction will start in August or September. This year’s road program will be larger than prior years’ projects, because NJDOT funding has increased due to last year’s 23-cent gas tax increase.
- Throughout May, the Berlin Police Department received 1,198 calls and conducted 108 investigations. Also throughout May, there were 12 drug arrests, 30 criminal arrests, 50 warrant arrests and 57 adult arrests. The total number of adult arrests in the borough since the start of the year is 334.
- During the meeting, Eastern Regional High School senior Christopher Bracchi was recognized for winning the Louis Bay Second Future Municipal Leaders Scholarship Award at the borough level. The Berlin resident, who is attending the University of Rhode Island in the fall, was also honored with a certificate from the New Jersey League of Municipalities as a semifinalist for his interest in civic contributions to the community.
- Also during the meeting, the Berlin Inter-Community Celebration Association Committee, honored Millard Wilkinson Jr. for his contributions to the borough, including his decade-long service to the council and 20 years as mayor of Berlin.
