Lambertville council adopts $1.145 million bond for capital repairs, stormwater upgrades and flood-protection work

Lambertville’s City Council on a unanimous voice vote adopted Ordinance 14-2025, authorizing $1,145,000 in general-obligation bonds to fund a package of capital projects that officials say are needed to meet regulatory stormwater requirements and repair aging municipal assets.

The bond ordinance allocates funding across several items: a $350,000 recycling truck replacement, an estimated $46,000 pickup for the Department of Public Works, $75,000 for technology upgrades, $225,000 for mandated storm‑drain retrofits, $15,000 for mapping the storm system, $40,000 for tree planting in the business district, and a $250,000 project to install automatic floodgates at the municipal building. The council and staff said FEMA will reimburse roughly 60% of the floodgate cost.

Officials said the storm-drain retrofit is part of state MS4 requirements and that the municipality must retrofit inlets that do not meet current standards; council members said crews will retrofit roughly 275 inlets this year and that an engineering-driven mapping and video inspection program will follow. The council also adopted Resolution 117-2025 to expand the city engineer’s contract to prepare updated tax maps ($43,910), outfall-pipe mapping ($9,500) and design/permit work for inlet replacements ($18,700).

Public commenters pressed the council on whether the floodgates and pump systems would be effective given regional drainage patterns. John Hack, a resident, urged a regional approach and cautioned that floodgates alone “won’t work” if upstream development increases runoff; he said communities upstream must be part of any long-term solution. Mayor responded that the floodgate project “is specifically for this building” and described the chosen gates as self-regulating units that rise with water pressure to provide a quick response to flash flooding.

Council members and staff said the bond package balances near-term regulatory compliance (stormwater retrofits and mapping) with equipment and facility needs. Implementation steps identified by staff include contracting the engineering work already authorized by resolution, sequencing inlet retrofits this year, beginning pipe-video inspections, and pursuing FEMA reimbursement for the floodgate installation. Several items (stormwater mapping, inlet retrofits) are tied to state permit deadlines and require engineering completion before final construction.

The ordinance passed on second reading with no recorded roll-call tallies in the transcript; officials described the vote as unanimous. Staff said the capital plan will be updated as the city finalizes contracts and receipts from Green Acres or other grants are realized.