BERKELEY – At a recent Township Council meeting, Mayor John Bacchione criticized a proposed New Jersey Natural Gas increase.
If approved, the change for the typical NJNG residential heating customer using 81 therms a month will be an increase of $29.01.
Bacchione said that the town’s elected officials were against the increase when it was first proposed and they are still against it months later. The proposed increase comes on top of an 11% increase in 2021.
“The request comes without proof of the company’s efforts to control costs at a time when inflation is at an all-time high,” he said.
Utility companies request increases every so often, called a “base rate petition.” The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities holds a hearing to determine if the increase is warranted. Usually, the Board strikes some kind of balance, allowing an increase but not the full amount requested. The process could take as much as a year to go through.
NJNG’s request, if approved fully, would bring in a $222.6 million increase to its base rates. The company said that this comes after approximately $850 million of investments such as infrastructure and cybersecurity. A press release highlighted replacing 140 miles of old mains and their service lines as well as a new three-year union labor agreement.
“Our top priority is to safely and reliably deliver the energy our customers count on to heat their homes and run their businesses,” said Steve Westhoven, President and CEO of NJNG. “The investments we make in our infrastructure reflect this commitment and the critical role our system plays in reaching New Jersey’s carbon reduction goals. We look forward to working with our regulators to achieve a successful resolution of this filing that is reasonable and fair for our customers and our company.”
NJNG explained that the cost of the gas itself is updated annually based on market prices and automatically passed on to customers. The company doesn’t profit from the sale of natural gas. The rate increase covers the construction and maintenance of gas lines and employees.
NJNG has 576,000 customers in the state.
Any customer having difficulty paying their natural gas bill is encouraged to visit njng.com/energyassistance to learn about assistance programs.
New Business Administrator
Scott Tirella, a former police officer from Lacey Township, will be Berkeley’s new business administrator, and will maintain the day-to-day operations. He replaced John Camera, who passed away suddenly earlier this year.
Tirella will be “an asset to the town,” Bacchione said.
Councilman Thomas Grosse said “John Camera will be sorely missed. Over the last 10 years, he became a good friend. He leaves behind six children and a wife. Our hearts go out to them. Scott, welcome aboard. I’m sure you’ll do an amazing job.”
New Projects
A resident asked about the walkway planned to go around Veterans Park.
A township official replied that they applied for four grants to fund that project, but only received two of them. They are discussing how to proceed, but one idea is to break the project into two phases. Phase 1 would be everything that could be paid for with the money the town did get. Phase 2 would be completed when the additional funding is secured.
In other news, the township awarded a contract: grading and drainage improvements to Precise Construction Incorporated, whose bid was $512,375; to pave gravel roads of Anchorage Boulevard and East Barnegat to Earle Asphalt, whose bid was $257,113.13.
