Budget, ElksFest Resolutions On The Agenda For Point Beach

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ – The Point Pleasant Beach borough council has a resolution to adopt the municipal budget on the agenda for their meeting on Tuesday night.

The budget, which was approved by the council at the May 18 council meeting after a public hearing, has the tax rate going up 2.96 percent, a $62.40 increase based on the borough's average home value of $567,308, and the tax rate per $100 would also go up from .428 to .439

Councilman Bob Santanello had questions about the use of surplus money in the budget, enough to where he planned on calling the state not to approve the borough budget as it is and force the borough’s finance committee to create a new one.

Two other resolutions on the agenda for the meeting, which will be streamed on YouTube starting at 7:30 p.m., are for the approval for the Point Pleasant Elks to hold Elksfest on the same day as the Seafood Festival on Sept. 18 and for a wine garden at the Seafood Festival.

Both applications were on the agenda at the last meeting on July 6, but after some spirited discussion about the Elksfest application was recommended to be denied while the wine garden was recommended to be approved, the decision was made to table the two resolutions and hold a meeting between the Elks, the borough’s chamber of commerce, who put in the application for the wine garden, borough police chief Joseph Michigan and the council's police and emergency management committee.