Mayor Miller addresses Lakewood Community ahead of Hurricane Sandy

good afternoon residents of Lakewood just wanted to give you an update exactly where things are holding here in town hall with regard to preparations of Hurricane Sandy committee manstein who is the liaison to office of emergency management as well as liaison to all offices of Emergency Management here in Lakewood emergency services such as fire police EMS and first aid uh at this point we had a meeting 12:00 12:00 noon which was held in town hall with uh the department heads of every Department here in Lakewood such as we had the chief of police for the police department the fire chief uh EMS we hadim LCSW of Lakewood bolim and other organizations hatel all there together Department Public Works all there together to discuss preparations for the upcoming Hurricane Sandy um as you may know different departments in Lakewood are under liaison ships for different members of the uh of the township committee but Emergency Services falls under mayor lonstein he put a fabulous job together putting this meeting together first and foremost just want to give you a couple different uh insights of what's been going on through Department of Public Works in anticipation of in anticipation of the storm with a lot of rainfall and heavy waterfall they've immediately set out to lowering the lake lowering the lake entails opening the floodgates to allow the water to drain the lake has gone down a good solid 2 feet if not more to allow for the influx of rain as well as storm drain water coming into the lake so hopefully we won't have any flooding from the lake with regard to around town Department Public Works has been driving clearing uh drains to allow for water to get into them now it's just important to understand that when drains overflow and they're not necessarily overflowing because they stuffed they overflow because they reach the maximum capacity which is why all new developments being built we make sure they do their own retention basins because Lakewood as a whole was never built to allow for the capacity of the amount of building that has gone on Lakewood so again we try our hardest to make sure that drains are clean but if there overflow the Overflow may not necessarily be from the any things blocking the drain but rather be from the Overflow of capacity uh that's regard to the lake and drainage with regard to garbage pickup Monday morning will be regular garbage pickup around town so again if you have a Monday morning if you're in zone one your garbage pickup will be regular time that's Route 9 East uh and north of the lake that's the 14th Street area Forest Avenue area all that whole entire area will all be garbage pickup regular on Monday morning Tuesday there will be no garbage pickup if your date is Tuesday and Tuesday Z 2 which is Route 99 East West sorry Route 9 West and the Northeast end Northwest end of Lakewood again Route 9 west north of the lake that area will not have garbage pickup Tuesday your garbage pickup will be Wednesday that's why your pale doesn't have to be out there and and turn into a missile so for those that are living in the Park Avenue Park Avenue area and the rain tree area Etc your garbage pickup will be Wednesday we all know it's important I'm sure you've heard this by now but buy yourself bottled water in case water purification systems go down and they tell you do not drink the tap water you'll have bottled water so make sure to go out there and buy plenty of bottled water I'd also recommend going out today filling up your gas tank top it off in case you need to evacuate for whatever the reason is this way will make sure you have enough gas fuel in your car with regard to power outages the the joke out there right now is Westgate has already called been calling jcpnl since yesterday to make sure they're first on the list for repairs but all kidding aside we spoken to jcpnl to let them understand what lakewood's about and and we have young children here many residents and especially with the uh with the constant power power outages that have been going on a Westgate to make sure we're on top of the situation mayor lonstein again from Emergency Management has gone down specifically to this Dispatch Center of uh jcpnl to witness firsthand what will take place over there and to also Garner contact information for those he needs to be in touch with during the storm mayor Lenin's office number is 942 3144 in case you need to reach him with with regard to that also when power goes out thankfully right now we're not in the heat of the summer or The Frigid cold of the winter so heat is not a big deal and air conditioning is not a big deal however those that live in basement apartments I understand is a big issue with regard to flooding if the power goes out what do you do with your Su pump I want to introduce to you a Nifty idea for a few dollars that will really help you out this is called a power inverter and power inverter plugs into the cigarette lighter plug of your car and then you're able to plug your sum pump into the other end which is electric which is electric this end over here you have your electric outlet with your plug which goes on with your switch that goes on and off you take your sump pump and plug it right in to the power inverter and this end goes directly into your cigarette lighter plug in essence you're turning your car into a generator for during the time when the power is out now it's important to note there's different wattages that you could buy this in you might be tempted to buy a real cheap one but that's low wattage you want to get a high wattage to be able to run your sun pump also don't be tempted to buy this this is great this is a small Nifty little power inverter which cost about 20 bucks and this item is great again plugs into this cette lighter plug and has the electric outlet on this end for you to plug in your this is great for a laptop charger or cigarette or or uh cell phone plug and again this plugs into a cigarette lighter but this will not be able to power up any high power object it will just it will just blow the fuse so again if you have a sun pump in your basement and you're concerned you might lose power get one of these it look something like this with the box in the cord uh it's make sure it's rated look on your sun pump see how many watts and amps the pump is and make sure you buy ample amount of wattage you will see on it it may say 700 watts and then it might say 800 watts Peak power Peak power it cannot run on Peak power but in case of a surge it can go up to that High make sure sure that you buy one of these that is ample power to supply you for your for your for your some pump or fish tank or other item which you may want to run um you know from time to time during the storm if you do lose power last but not least I want to thank the residents in previous storms who have always been there helping each other out and neighbors who have come to each other's Aid and I want to extend that as well in this in this storm that we should all be there for each other should a neighbor need bottled water or assistance with a generator what whatever it may be that you have extra and the neighbor may need let's be there for each other let's pull together Bond during this time of storm and as mayor Lin said during the storm during the uh during the meeting which we just had right now uh hopefully the storm will not be a big deal and hopefully it will just be a tabletop a tabletop ex uh exercise and tabletop drill of what will take place during the storm I do want to end off with an appreciation to the rest of the township committee Ray Kohl's Steven langard and Isaac aan for standing by together some of you may ask why were they all not together at the meeting there is a law called a Sunshine Law that an unadvertised meeting cannot have more than two committee members I was there as the mayor mayor L was there as a bcy office Emergency Management however please be please keep in mind we will all here together in solidarity during the storm