Together with the NJ Business Action Center (BAC), BCONE hosted the SRAG quarterly meeting held at the NJDEP building. This was a specially formatted meeting that dealt predominately with funding incentives and other programs offered by the state for remediation and redevelopment projects.

BCONE President Steve Jaffe served as host and moderator for the three hour meeting and was joined on the dais by Nancy Belonzi of the BAC, who is a member of BCONE’s Advisory Council. BCONE Regional Council member Alan Miller of NJDEP, BCONE Executive Director Sue Boyle of GEI, and BCONE Advisory Council member Sharon McSwieney of Langan attended the session along with 75 others from consulting firms, law firms, 5 other state agencies, members of the state’s Site Remediation Professionals Licensing Board (SRPLB), and municipal officials.

As is always an agenda item at SRAG meetings, the session started with an update on the activities of the SRPLB  and a summary of the metrics from the Site Remediation Program (SRP; click here for those metrics).  Presentations then followed from the BAC, the Environmental Infrastructure Trust (EIT), the Economic Development Authority, the NJ Redevelopment Authority and the NJ Department of Transportation.  The PowerPoints from these agencies will be available in about a week on the NJDEP SRP website or you can contact BCONE for the weblink.

A panel discussion on the Somerville, NJ Green Seam Brownfield Development Area project followed.  The PowerPoint presented by Colin Driver, Somerville’s Economic Development Director will be available on the NJDEP SRP website.  President Jaffe kept the panel discussion moving by asking Mr. Driver; Michael Deely  and Ron Wienckoski of NJDEP’s Office of Brownfield Reuse; and  Frank Scangarella of the EIT and Gene Chebra on NJDEP’s Infrastructure Financing about requirements for each incentive program used, timeframes, loophole, and other words of wisdom.