Senate President Stephen Sweeney has called for hearings to be held after Hurricane Sandy caused great damage in New Jersey. He told NJ Today Senior Correspondent Desirée Taylor that the purpose of the hearings is to get input from professionals, experts and citizens about what was done right and what was done wrong during and after the storm. He also said he wants the state to rebuild in a smart way.
The hearings are meant to be useful and bipartisan. “We’re working with my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle. Sen. [Tom] Kean and Gov. Christie and we’ll be coordinating the best we can with the Assembly so that we put forward legislation that actually makes sense, that will help people and will prepare New Jersey for not the New Jersey that I grew up in but the New Jersey that we live in now, which is subject to tornadoes and hurricanes,” Sweeney said.
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The focus of the legislature will now be reacting to Hurricane Sandy, Sweeney said. “We have legislation we’ll continue to do, but this has to be on the forefront because we really need to start the process to get the legislative fixes in place so that we can start to rebuild and strengthen our state,” he said. “And we need to do it quickly.”
Sweeney said all involved have good intentions. “After the hearings, what will happen is we will deal with power situations, we will deal with transportation issues, we will deal with not building near rivers,” he said. Sweeney pointed out that Sayreville is built very close to a river and its residents have been flooded three years in a row. He suggests that residents should be allowed to be bought out so they can move on.
“We’re going to be developing all types of ideas, putting them together, working with the administration and our colleagues to ensure that we rebuild New Jersey,” Sweeney said. “There’s going to be a lot of legislation because there’s going to be a need to have a lot.”
The Senate president said he wants to make sure rebuilding is done in a smart way. He mentioned that at the Jersey Shore, areas with easements and high berns were spared but other beaches were lost that didn’t have high berns.
“There’s going to be a lot of tough decisions to be made for the betterment of all people, not just the people who live in the homes on the ocean,” Sweeney said. “We have a lot of work in front of us.”
Some utility companies have been criticized for the power outages following Hurricane Sandy. Sweeney said officials will be evaluating how the companies handled the situation, but added that they did a much better job communicating with the public than in previous emergencies.
“We have to figure out how we’re going to deal with power going forward,” Sweeney said. “And that’s part of this process and I’ve already spoken to Sen. [Raymond] Lesniak about it. He’s got a bunch of ideas and we’re going to work together to figure this out pretty quick.”