Point Beach Council Was to Award Boardwalk Contract Tuesday

Point Beach Council was expected to award a boardwalk contract and discuss energy aggregation at tonight's council meeting.

The agenda included an item to "Award of contract to Jamali Developers for Boardwalk Plaza Reconstruction ($786,162)."

This is the section of boardwalk between businesses on both the east and west sides that was still standing after Sandy barreled through, but is in poor condition and needs replacement.

The agenda also calls for the municipality to move forward with researching energy aggregation and hiring a consultant to help with that effort and lists the following measures:

"12 ENERGY AGGREGATION:
a) 2nd Reading/Public Hearing Ordinance 2013-39 
b) Authorize entry into cooperative pricing agreement with Howell Township
c) Appoint Commercial Utility Consultants as the Borough’s Energy Agent"

Point Beach would become one of a number of area towns considering entering into energy aggregation agreements to save money.

Energy aggregation programs, which were established a decade ago, potentially create savings by allowing municipal governments to first aggregate the energy needs of residential, commercial and government accounts, then buy energy supply from third-party suppliers at prices below the average utility rate, according to the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU).

The savings comes on the supply portion of the bill, with transmission and other fees unaffected by the move to aggregation. Residents would have the ability to opt out if they choose.