At last week’s Shamong Township Committee meeting, Administrator Sue Onorato announced the township’s building code official, Edward Toussaint, is out on medical leave after triple bypass surgery he underwent in early April.
Toussaint has served Shamong Township since 2009 and has been instrumental in improving the accuracy, efficiency and flow of information within his department by utilizing updated software.
Onorato did confirm she saw him earlier in the day and he was doing well.
“He’s not that old, he just has a bad family history, that’s what caught him,” she said. “He had somewhat high blood pressure, but all of his other numbers were great.”
Toussaint lost a brother to heart issues and his father had a quadruple bypass surgery at a relatively young age to aid his heart problems.
“He is a trooper,” Onorato said. “He’s hoping to be able to come back into the office for a few hours a week and do claim reviews in about two weeks.”
Fire and Plumbing Inspector John Holroyd is licensed in all four inspection categories in the office, so he will be taking over for the time being.
As Mayor Tim Gimbel pointed out, it’s a tough time to lose Toussaint as the township is busy working on several permits and construction projects. Shamong had 57 permits year to date on March 31, 2015, and in 2016 it has already accumulated 83.
“We’ve had a sizeable increase in permits this year,” Onorato said.
As far as the revenue over the same time period, in 2015 it was at $12,000 and in 2016 it was at $24,000.
Another uptick the township has noticed is an increase in variances going through regarding site plans and subdivisions for the building joint land use board.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that maybe this economy is starting to sputter off into something better than what it’s been for the last seven-plus years,” Onorato said.
In other news:
• The list of vacant properties in the township has grown to 27. It has collected fees of $2,500 from a total of five of these properties already.
• Onorato and Coordinator of Emergency Management John Lyons attended a meeting with FEMA regarding the financial aid for winter storm Jonas in January. FEMA requested the township identify a 48-hour window because it will not be covering all costs for the entire storm, but it is willing to reimburse for prep work that was done up to three hours before the storm hit. If everything qualifies and FEMA is satisfied with what the township submitted, it would be reimbursed for a total of about $44,000.
• The first quarter rabies case report for the state that tests from Jan. 1 to March 31 revealed Burlington County had three raccoons infected.
