Perth Amboy residents who have not yet completed the 2020 Census can do so quickly by working with Census takers that have begun visiting households in our City. It is critical that you work with the census worker so that everyone in your household is counted. Our population count and information is how federal funding to our city is determined, so we need to have an accurate count of how many people are in Perth Amboy. Our population count also determines our representation in Congress. If you have not yet done so, we urge you to complete the 2020 Census and make sure you and your family are counted.

The Census workers who come to your home will wear a mask and will practice social distancing and other health and safety protocols. If you want to choose to avoid meeting in person to do the Census, you can choose to quickly respond to the Census online, over the phone or by mail.

On Oct 1, 2020, the City of Perth Amboy must submit to the NJ DEP a plan to prevent the City’s raw sewage from being released into Raritan Bay during heavy rains. Currently the Perth Amboy combined sewer system dumps raw sewage into the bay (gross) during heavy rainfall. The CSO Long Term Control Plan addresses this pollution problem and will improve the water quality.

Clean water means swimmable beaches in Perth Amboy. It also means less local flooding. Perth Amboy is one of 21 NJ communities who must submit plans to the NJ DEP to address water pollution from combined sewers.

Perth Amboy hired engineering firm CDM Smith to develop the CSO plan. The firm developed a $500 million plan to address the sewer overflow over 20 years. The number of combined sewer overflow pipes that discharge into Raritan Bay is 16. it is estimated that over 61 times a year sewage is dumped into the bay by these pipes.

Waterfront Neighborhood Association Organizer Bienvenido Torres recommends that Perth Amboy seek grants to pay for the plan that will fix our sewers and clean our bay.

Raritan Riverkeeper Bill Shultz, also a Perth Amboy Civic Trustee, proposed to DEP to allow CDM Smith engineers to modify the south 3 acres of the Second St park development (near a main sewage outfall) to facilitate the future construction of an underground retention facility so Perth Amboy would be able to have storage for 300 million gallons of stormwater.

Things for the public to look for in the plan or to recommend. Green infrastructure, catching rainfall before it enters the CSO and reducing stormwater, is a method to address the combined sewer overflow and is generally less costly. Also, making sure that the plans do not include unsightly infrastructure in a neighborhood. The impact of climate change has increased the amount of rainfall, and we need to make sure that the plan considers this increase in stormwater. The plan should also consider how future development will impact our stormwater.

Public presentation of the plan is required before it is submitted Oct 1.

PSE&G will reimburse residential customers up to $250 and commercial customers up to $5,000 for food spoilage if their service was interrupted for 72 hours or longer between Aug. 4 and 12, 2020 because of Tropical Storm Isaias.  

Customers can apply for reimbursement at pseg.com/claims. Reimbursement claims cannot be processed over the phone.  

Customers will have until Sept. 16, 2020, to file claims. Reimbursement is expected to take up to 60 business days from when a proper claim form is completed and submitted to PSE&G.

The tropical storm knocked out power for more than 575,000 customers in New Jersey, making it the fifth-most destructive storm in our company’s 100-plus year history.

“We recognize that losing power in August, together with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, was a hardship for many of our customers,” PSE&G President Dave Daly said. “Given the unique combination of circumstances, we believe the right thing to do is to expand our claims process to ease the burden on the customers most impacted by Tropical Storm Isaias.”

For residential customers, food spoilage claims of $150 or less must include an itemized list. Food spoilage claims over $150 must include an itemized list and proof of loss (for example: cash register tapes, store or credit card receipts, canceled checks or photographs of spoiled items).

Separately, customers will be reimbursed for losses, up to a maximum of $300, for prescription medications that spoiled due to lack of refrigeration. Customers must provide an itemized list of the medications and proof of loss (for example: pharmacy prescription label or pharmacy receipt identifying the medicine). 

Commercial customers applying for reimbursement must supply an itemized list of spoiled food and proof of loss (invoices, inventory lists, bank statements).

Today Governor Murphy announced that the November 3rd General Election in NJ will be largely vote by mail. All active registered voters will receive a prepaid return postage vote by mail ballot. There will be no sample ballot mailed out, only the official ballot.

Ballots will start to arrive to registered voters on Sept 19th. All ballots will be sent out by county clerks by Oct. 5.

You have options to sending in your ballot. You can mail it in and all ballots being returned through the U.S. Postal System must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and will be accepted by the county clerk until Nov. 10th. Or you can deposit your ballot in a secure drop box (in Perth Amboy the dropbox is at the Police Dept.) Or you can hand your ballot in directly to a poll worker at a polling place on Election Day.

If you choose to vote in person, there will be some polling places open where you can vote by provisional ballot. Each municipality will be required to open at least one in-person polling site. All individuals with disabilities will have access to an ADA-conforming voting machine.

Murphy said the vote by mail primary was a huge success with the second-highest state primary turnout in history. And so vote by mail will take place for the November general election.