All Officers and Directors were present except Director Pamela Boright was absent.

We had a special presentation on Emergency Management co-sponsored by LVT and WPICA. Presenting were Ocean County Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator, Rosemarie Chisholm-Cohen from the Ocean County Sheriff's Department, Office of Emergency Management; Lavallette Police Chief Colin Grant and Lavallette Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator, Kevin Dey.

A video and audio version of the evening was recorded and the video will be made available for broadcast on Cablevision.

Some highlights of the evening were the importance of self-preparedness in terms of leaving when told to do so, having ready and taking important papers, prescriptions and medications, and having a contact person who knows where you are going to make it easier for friend or family to find you if evacuated. Never leave pets behind-take vet records, photo, leash and carry case.

Don't count on going to a public shelter-they're not private, not personal, not clean, noisy, not comfortable.

Buses: the county has access to plenty of buses including wheelchair accessible-Ocean Ride, Loori Buses, and School buses. There are more buses available than takers. Most people want to take their cars to evacuate. In preparation for people who need assistance in case of evacuation, Local Emergency Management plans needs to include people who need to be evacuated by bus and special needs indicated and filed with County.

The Emergency operations plan as a document is no longer available to the public. If there's a specific part of the plan that a person is interested, he may go to the County or Local coordinator and see if that particular info. is available to public.

Regular meeting minutes:

The minutes from August were accepted as read.
The treasurer's report was read, accepted, filed and attached to these minutes.
Membership: 602 paid memberships
Fundraiser: T-shirts are still available for $10.

LVT/Heritage: LVT participated in Heritage Day as per the resolution of M/C. All organizations are bound by State and Federal Laws.

Pay-to-Play: The ordinance was updated and withdrawn rather than voted upon by the M/C. There was a feeling that if is was not in "Common Cause's" words, it would not be acceptable-not a good attitude by some of the members of the governing body. Will be re-introduced at next meeting. Common cause will look at it and send a representative to the next council meeting-probably Mr. Falk Engel.

Other municipal issues:

Additional fuel appropriation: The M/C asked for an emergency fuel appropriation of $40,000. The total fuel budget for the year was around $50,000. Due to Britta's questioning of this request and information provided by Ben Brockwell, the M/C voted for increase of half of the $40,000, i.e. $20,000 with an inquiry into cost and usage of fuel before anymore dollars would be appropriated.

Boosted amount of dollars for sump-pump rehabilitation on Magee Ave. Joe Ardito and Britta Wenzel are investigating new technology that would be less costly than the present rehabilitation methods.

Lowering of the roof lines from 7 to 6' as per the planning board - is of concern to member Al DeBenedictis. Lowering the slope of roofs cold be detrimental in terms of roof weight. Walter Boright said that lowering the sloop of the roofs would also make most houses non-forming and questioned whether a variance would be required if you want to modify your home. Joe Palinsky commented that we don't have a fire truck that could reach the third floor.

In response to LVT asking for input about members' experience obtaining flood insurance, one member reported that the amount of their flood insurance was $654. It rose to $1,460 after a change in title for the same amount of coverage. Some companies are refusing to write homeowner's insurance due to the high-risk.

LVT will invite a speaker to talk about Flood Insurance. Pat Hoffman to follow-up and ask a person whom she knows is knowledgeable on the subject.

Member Stan Turon is concerned with yellow "information" sheet (Flood Protection and Coastal Flood Safety for the Borough of Lavallette) about flooding and procedure that will be followed. Stan reported that these procedures were not followed and feels that the information needs to be updated.
President Joe Palinsky is to write a letter to the Borough asking the M/C to update the info. and correct hand-out about flood ins. Anything that is not current should be corrected and why haven't procedures outlined been carried out in the last storm? Once updated, it needs to be distributed to taxpayers.

The town phone system number is not reachable on weekends or after hours-only a recording. Joe Ardito will look into updating the phone system with a link to the police department.

The School report was read, filed and attached to these minutes.

All reports were accepted and filed.

LVT dues for the upcoming year were set at this meeting as required by our by-laws. It was unanimously passed that the LVT dues be kept at $10.

Other issues discussed: