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After almost 20 years of shuttling ferry commuters between New York and Monmouth County, NY Waterway lost a contract to operate the service to rival Seastreak LLC, which provides ferry service between the Highlands area and New York.

The Monmouth County Board of Commissioners awarded a contract on June 21 to operate the service from the county-owned Belford ferry terminal in Middletown, citing a technical deficiency with NY Waterway’s bid.

Surprised commuters learned the news when they were handed letters from NY Waterway on Wednesday, announcing the change.

“We’re stunned, and so are the riders we’ve served these past 20 years,” Armand Pohan, NY Waterway CEO and president, said in a statement. “Our bid offered the most frequent service and the lowest ticket prices, yet it was thrown out based on a technicality in which the county didn’t follow its own rules. That’s a bad deal for riders in Monmouth County, and we intend to fight it.”

NY Waterway’s bid was rejected because of missing a document providing proof that the company was financially able to provide the service.

“After initial review of the proposals, the county found that NY Waterway’s bid was non-compliant because it failed to submit a Consent of Surety, a mandatory bid item, with its bid proposal,” said Thomas A. Arnone, Monmouth County Commissioner Director. “The bid proposal from Seastreak was found to be compliant with all bid requirements and specifications. The county notified NY Waterway regarding the non-compliance and rejection of its bid.”

Under the two-year contract, Seastreak would take over the Belford service in October 2022 and the county has two, one-year options to renew it.

But at the County Commissioners’ June 21 work meeting, prior to the regular board meeting, Pohan said more than three months went by between submission of the bid and notification that the Consent of Surety was missing. A ferry company attorney said it was suppled 24 hours after the notification.

Pohan asked the board why the substance of the contract between the two companies wasn’t compared. NY Waterway’s fares were cheaper (at $21.50) than the $28 fare he said Seastreak proposed, and that NY Waterway offered more morning and evening trips.

Seastreak officials said commuters would get more value and flexibility for their fares because Belford service would be linked with the company’s other ferry routes.

“We plan to connect Atlantic Highlands, Highlands and Belford, either by a boat or bus, so you could get on a Seastreak ferry anywhere and get back to your car at the end of the night,” said James D. Barker, Seastreak marketing and communications vice president.

Another advantage is “our boats are a little faster and will cut the trip time by 10 minutes and carry 100 passengers more,” he said.

But Pohan asked the board if it was in the best interest of commuters to have one company provide all the ferry service in the county.

“They’ll have a Monmouth-opoly. They’ll have complete control with no competition,’ he told the county commissioners. “You commuters will suffer.”

However, a county attorney told the board there was “no legal impediment” to voting on the contract.

“I think it’s great for commuters, it adds flexibility to the ferry by combining services,” Barker said.

The vote could be the final chapter in a rivalry for the prestigious Belford to New York ferry service that was a preferred commute by executives and Wall Streeters to the longer train and bus trip that required use of several modes of transportation.

That competition reached new heights when both companies built larger, luxurious commuter ferries for their Monmouth County to New York service in the last six years.

NY Waterway had the 400-seat Betsy Ross and the Molly Pitcher ferries built in New Jersey in 2015 for Belford service, the first ferries built jn the state in a century. They travel at 33 mph — faster than other NY Waterway ferries.

Seastreak countered in June 2018 with construction of the 600-seat Commodore and a sister ship, the Courageous, launched in December 2021. Both have top speeds of 44 mph.

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Lacey Road in Whiting is going to be a whole lot busier. According to a report, there are plans to put in a Starbucks (with a drive-thru), a Jersey Mike’s Subs, and an AT&T store.

The Asbury Park Press says that the Manchester Planning Board approved a new building in the Whiting Commons shopping center. The location is currently vacant.

It should make for some interesting coffee wars; there is already a Wawa on the corner of Lacey Road and Route 70 and across the street from that is a Dunkin’ (next to the Mavis Tire Center).

The addition of a third major java chain within a block will give the residents of Whiting (and Manchester as a whole) plenty of coffee options; all we need is a QuickChek to complete the coffee battle royale.

The location of the new building will actually be closer to the Stop and Shop (and Wendy’s) than the Wawa/Dunkin’ corner; Stop & Shop is the anchor of the Whiting Commons.

There is still one available store space in the planned building; according to the Press, the company that operates the mall, Paramount Realty Service, is in talks with a national retail chain regarding that vacancy. There is also the possibility of a new sit down restaurant; four new liquor licenses have become available in the town.

Manchester Mayor Robert Hudak told the Press that a new restaurant would be welcome,

"The residents there have been begging for something like that," Hudak said. "They want more variety. This will add to the mix of restaurants that are out there."

No timetable for construction was announced.

The new Starbucks will have a drive-thru and an outdoor seating area.

There are over 100 Jersey Mike’s Subs in New Jersey

There’s a Dunkin’ right down the street from the proposed Starbucks

The Wawa across the street completes the coffee trifecta.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.

You can now listen to Deminski & Doyle — On Demand! Hear New Jersey’s favorite afternoon radio show any day of the week. Download the Deminski & Doyle show wherever you get podcasts, on our free app, or listen right now.

CARTERET – Longtime plans to build a passenger ferry terminal in the borough take another step forward after federal transportation officials earmarked $6 million for the project.

Mayor Dan Reiman and U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J. 6th District, announced the funding on Wednesday.

The Carteret Intermodal Transportation Center has been designed for the borough’s waterfront with a three-story ferry terminal including a waiting area, restrooms, food court/snack bar, operations center, meeting space and a public rooftop observation deck.

It’s on the heels of last month’s announcement that NY Waterway (officially Port Imperial Ferry Corp.) would provide the first 149-passenger ferry, under a contract after a winning public bid of $2.25 million.

Funding for that first ferryboat purchase came from a $1 million grant from NJ Transit, as well as a separate $1.25 million grant from the Port Authority Capital Fund.

Back in September, the state Department of Environmental Protection approved a permit to dredge the Arthur Kill River.

Two, 80-foot ferry boats — each with a 149 passenger capacity — would utilize the terminal, under those plans approved by the DEP — pending completion of the dredging project and final approval from the Army Corps of Engineers.

NY Waterway currently operates ferries out of Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, Edgewater, Belford, and was just awarded a contract for South Amboy — with four terminals in Manhattan.

The $6 million announced this week would be distributed through the DOT Passenger Ferry Grant Program, which funds capital projects that help eligible project sponsors support existing passenger ferry service, establish new ferry service, and upgrade ferry boats, terminals, and related facilities and equipment.

“This is great news for New Jersey residents and tourists who commute to downtown Manhattan. This funding will help improve efficient and reliable transportation options and help reduce vehicle traffic,” Pallone said in a written statement.

“The ferry terminal building is an important next step in our efforts to provide environmentally friendly transportation service for commuters within Carteret and throughout Central New Jersey,” Reiman said in the same written release.

Erin Vogt is a reporter and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach her at [email protected]

The Eagle project consisted of creating a Memorial Reading Garden in memory of longtime English teacher Sharon Aguilar at Memorial Middle School in Little Ferry.

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS/LITTLE FERRY, NJ - A member of Hasbrouck Heights Boy Scout Troop 17 recently earned his Eagle Scout rank by completing a project in honor of a longtime Little Ferry teacher.

Mario Gabriel Fanego advanced to the rank of Eagle Scout at the Court of Honor ceremony in late February. It was the culmination of his journey, from Scout to Eagle Scout, which included earning 54 Merit badges; the minimum number required is 21.

Fanego’s Eagle project consisted of creating a Memorial Reading Garden and outdoor chess and checkerboard in memory of his seventh grade English teacher Sharon Aguilar, who passed away suddenly. She was a teacher for over 30 years at Memorial Middle School in Little Ferry, NJ.

Hasbrouck Heights Councilperson Josephine Ciocia taught with Aguilar.

“Sharon taught in our schools and left an everlasting impact on our students. Her knowledge of the subject area that she taught, Reading, was exceptional, and her presentation was electric…she truly made reading fun,” said Ciocia. “From “Beach Parties” in the classroom to celebrate Read Across America, to lyrics for vocabulary words, “Words Fabulous Words,” to dressing up in character, Sharon made reading come alive. It’s no wonder that her students remember their 7th Grade Reading teacher with fondness and respect.”

Fanego proposed the project in October 2020, and fundraised to pay for its construction. With the help of his fellow Scouts, he began the project on May 1, 2021, and completed it May 31st. It was unveiled in a dedication ceremony to the residents of Little Ferry in June 2021.

“I wish that the Garden helps people take a moment and remember a great teacher and human being,” said Fanego. “The garden has a bench which can have teachers and students sit outside and read, which was Ms. Aguilar's passion. The outdoor Chess and Checkerboard is also dedicated in her memory because Ms. Aguilar was all about her students.”

“Thanks to Mario’s beautiful tribute to his seventh grade Reading teacher, I am able to sit and visit with my dear friend’s memory whenever the weather allows it,” observed Ciocia. “And when the weather does not cooperate, I can look out the window and remind myself of that larger than life friend who still inspires so many every day.The Memorial Reading Garden, Mario’s Eagle Scout Project, truly is a wonderful tribute to a remarkable woman.”

“I hope the Little Ferry students will be able to learn how to play chess and checkers which will improve their mathematical skills, and other academic skills,” he explained.

Faneog is a 14-year old freshman at Applied Technology High School at Bergen Community College, which is part of the Bergen County Technical Schools. He is enrolled in the Mechatronics Engineering program.

“I hope to be a Biomedical engineer so I could help people who need prosthetics,” he said.

And what are some of the lessons Fanego learned from successfully completing the project and earning his Eagle Scout?

“I learned about my community from my Eagle project and found it very rewarding,” said Fanego. “It taught me how people volunteer and are always open to help others and come together for a common cause.”

“Ultimately, I hope the garden will be a big ‘Thank You’ to all teachers who help each one of us become who we are,” he said.

The first signs of the COVID pandemic's next wave — or even of the next pandemic — will likely come from the waste we flush down the toilet.

People infected with COVID shed virus in their feces. By analyzing regular samples from sewage treatment facilities, upticks in the amount of virus in a community — as well as the type of variants present — can be detected long before hospital emergency rooms fill up.

That's been the case in Bergen County, where academic researchers have been sampling wastewater from a treatment facility in Little Ferry since the first wave of the COVID pandemic in May 2020.

The results provided county officials with early warnings of the delta and omicron surges, since infected people shed virus into the sewer system even before they feel sick and seek tests. Data collected from samples collected at 11 sites along the sewer system also identified areas where COVID concentrations suddenly increased.

“It allowed us to move into those areas and do more testing, and later, more vaccinating,” said Bergen County Executive James Tedesco.

Wastewater monitoring is “a new frontier of infectious disease surveillance in the U.S.,” said Dr. Amy Kirby, team leader of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Wastewater Surveillance Network.

Long used internationally for detection of the polio virus in polio eradication efforts, sewage samples can be analyzed for a variety of disease-causing viruses and bacteria.

Kirby announced earlier this month that the CDC was adding daily updates of results from 400 testing sites to its COVID data dashboard.

The grassroots networking of researchers around the country had shown the usefulness of such wastewater monitoring, she said.

Plus, it has other advantages.

And it is a leading — not a lagging — indicator.

Like an early warning system, the information can enable hospital executives to prepare ahead of a major spike in cases, universities to offer tests to residents of a specific dormitory where high viral concentrations have been found, and public health officials to amplify their messages about mask-wearing, testing and isolation in targeted communities.

“Looking at wastewater is the same as getting everybody in the community tested every day,” said Kartik Chandran, a professor of engineering at Columbia University who leads the Bergen County study. He has also been involved in studies of virus concentrations in wastewater on the Columbia campus in New York, in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and in southeastern Kentucky.

Sewage as early warning system

Wastewater monitoring in Bergen County, although not currently part of the CDC’s national surveillance system, has provided important research insights.

“The Bergen County work represents one of the longest running studies anywhere,” said Chandran. “We started in May two years ago and are still going.”

Chandran received a 2015 MacArthur “genius” award for his pioneering international work about transforming wastewater from a pollutant in need of disposal to a resource for useful products, such as chemicals, fertilizer and energy. In early 2020, as the pandemic struck the United States, he shifted his team’s focus from research about bacteria in wastewater to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID.

At first, his team focused on whether existing sewage treatment processes were adequate to prevent the spread of the virus, he said. Satisfied that they were sufficient, the team moved on to analyze trends in the virus concentration in wastewater over time.

They compared those trends with clinical trends from patient testing in the communities that used the wastewater system and found striking — and consistent — parallels. They also performed genetic sequencing of the virus from wastewater to identify variants of concern.

Chandran's COVID research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. A private company, AECOM, collaborated in the testing program at the Bergen treatment plant, particularly when it expanded to include thrice-weekly sampling at 11 manholes in outlying parts of the sewer system. Bergen County used $932,000 in federal CARES Act funds for the AECOM study and to purchase equipment to collect samples.

Currently, samples are gathered once a week from the Little Ferry and Edgewater water pollution control facilities and sent to Columbia University for analysis.

In Bergen County, signals of a rising number of COVID infections caused by the delta variant first showed up in sewage samples from the Little Ferry treatment site in October 2020, three weeks before hospitals and health care facilities reported a surge in delta patients, Chandran said.

Similarly, “we saw three weeks ahead” that another COVID wave was spiking before Christmas in Bergen County, he said.

This month, virus concentrations “have decreased considerably” since December, and “are currently at levels observed around May 2021 and August 2021,” he wrote in his most recent report to the county. The concentrations are lower than at the same time last year.

And that’s good news.

While no one is ready to declare victory, that matches state data showing a steady decline in patients hospitalized with COVID — to 865 on Thursday night, the first time it had dropped below 1,000 since late November.

“The spread is still slowing,” Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday at a pandemic briefing that he declared would be among his last.

Wastewater testing at the Bergen County Utilities Authority will continue, however.

Future uses

Around the country, hundreds more sites are expected to add their data from wastewater surveillance over the coming months to the CDC’s national surveillance system. The CDC currently supports 37 states, four cities and two territories in their collection of information.

Two New Jersey wastewater treatment sites have signed up to submit their monitoring data to the CDC. And four sites in New Jersey are being sampled by state agencies in a project funded by the federal Food and Drug Administration, a Health Department spokeswoman said.

Surveillance of viral levels in sewage systems is just one tool among many when it comes to fighting the COVID pandemic, said Dr. Ed Lifshitz, head of the communicable disease division in the state Health Department. Standardizing the data from different treatment systems to compare results has been a challenge, he said.

“Exactly how beneficial wastewater analysis is when compared to other surveillance activities is still being determined,” he said. “It is likely more useful when case counts are very low to use as an early warning system — and may well become useful for other organisms down the road.”

Researchers see vast potential in this tool to detect infection levels in a community and prepare and prevent future pandemics.

“We would like to develop something that allows us to look for multiple pathogens,” said Chandran. “Now, we know what we are looking for — the virus that causes COVID.”

Lindy Washburn is a senior health care reporter for NorthJersey.com. To keep up-to-date about how changes in health care affect you and your family, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.