Belmar council adds resolution to hire environmental services contractor and authorizes executive session

The Belmar Borough Council voted to add a resolution to the agenda that would appoint a professional environmental‑services contract and read a resolution authorizing an executive session on pending litigation and contract negotiations.

At the workshop the clerk moved to add "a resolution appointing [a] professional service contract for environmental services," which the council seconded and approved by voice vote. The clerk identified the resolution as 2025‑1‑92 and said it would appoint the firm referenced in the record as "Prestige" to provide environmental services related to a site for which prior filings with the DEP had shown deficiencies and incomplete contamination boundary information. "That project, we have found that there was deficiencies in the initial filing with the DEP and the boundaries of contamination were not established," Council President Maria Mondaro said, adding the borough would continue to investigate the site.

The clerk also read a separate resolution that permits the council to recess into a private executive session to discuss pending litigation, contract negotiations and other matters permitted under the Open Public Meetings Act; the reading stated that those matters remain confidential until the need for confidentiality no longer exists. The clerk asked for a motion to add the professional services resolution; a member seconded and the council responded "Aye." The meeting record does not show a roll‑call tally for that particular addition beyond the voice vote recorded at the workshop.

Council did not take a final public vote on awarding the environmental contract during the open workshop; the item was added to the agenda and will proceed through the council's regular process. The council read and limited the scope of the executive‑session authority to litigation and contract negotiations at the meeting.