Engineering
The City Engineering Department’s responsibilities are very diverse. The City of Millville is unique when compared to other Municipalities in the fact that it owns and maintains a Sewer, Water and Airport Utility. Most Municipalities do not control any or all of these facilities. The engineering for day to day operations and construction projects related to these utilities is overseen by the Engineering Department. The Engineering Department serves as the engineer for Planning and Zoning Boards. This includes design review and inspection of all new construction projects which comes before these Boards. The Department is responsible for design and construction of all city roads, stormwater facilities, public buildings, recreational facilities, activities related to maintaining the closed landfill, and operating and permitting a Vegetative Waste Compost Facility. We serve the City in overseeing any environmental affairs including contaminated site cleanups, storage tank removals, coordinating the Gypsy Moth Spray Program with the State and City residents, all State and Federal Permitting, and environmental studies. The Department also has a Licensed Land Surveyor. His license is used for all surveys necessary for city projects, land sales, lease areas, and volunteer land survey for non-profit organizations (Ahome, Churches, housing authority, etc.). Daily functions include street opening permits, maintaining and making available to the public the City’s road, utility, subdivision and tax map inventory, handling complaints and questions relating to all Utilities, Departments and Boards we represent, and coordinating projects with County, State and other related agencies.
With all the above tasks, obviously there is a need for outside consultants. The use of outside consultants is dictated by the current workload of the Department and the need for technical expertise in specified fields such as electrical, water and wastewater treatment, architecture, airport design, lab testing, ect. The role of the consultant in each project can be broad or limited, as required by the Engineer. John H. Knoop, III, PE
 For most major projects there are five various tasks, handled by the Engineering Department they are as follows:
SURVEY – This includes the gathering of all preliminary information necessary for the design phase consisting of outbound survey, topographic survey, soils testing, as-built information.
DESIGN AND PERMITTING – This phase includes all necessary work to furnish plans and specifications and obtain all State and Federal permits required to publicly bid the project.
CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION – This phase involves the public bid process, preparing contract documents, pre-construction and progress meetings with the contractor, shop drawing review, contract payment, negotiating and processing change orders and preparing project close-out documents.
CONSTRUCTION INSPECTION – Part time or full time inspection of construction as dictated by the complexity of the project or as required by the funding agency.
CONSTRUCTION LAYOUT – This involves the field layout, by the survey crew, of infrastructure constructed by the contractor as required by the project.
These tasks can be handled in house or out or a combination of the two for any project. The Departments current work load is very demanding. The City Commission has been aggressive in revitalizing the downtown, rehabilitating and expanding the sewer and water infrastructure, maintaining our roads, upgrading the Airport and our recreational facilities. The activity of the private sector has also created revitalized. Commercial, Industrial and residential housing development is on the rise, creating demand on this Department.
The Engineering Department provides survey, design, permitting, contract administration, construction inspection and layout services to the following City Departments:
Streets and Roads Water Utility Sewer Utility Parks and Public Properties Planning and Economic Development Public Safety
The City Engineer serves as the Engineer to the Millville Planning and Zoning Boards. This involves a design review of all site plans and subdivisions submitted to the respective boards. It also includes follow up inspection to insure that applicants have constructed their sites in accordance with the Planning Board and Zoning Board approvals.
Streets and Roads – including road layout, drainage Water Sewer Tax Maps Green Acres (Recreational Open Space Inventory) Zoning Map UEZ (Urban Enterprise Zone) Revenue Allocation District
The Engineering Department has applied for or assisted in applying for Grants/Loans with the following Agencies:
Green Acres Empowerment Zone UDAG Municipal Aid Local Aid for Centers Infrastructure Trust Fund Brownfields Funds Urban Enterprise Zone
Upon successful award the City provides it services to insure completion of the project in accordance with requirements.
The Engineering Department has overseen the survey design, permitting, contract administration, construction layout and inspection of all major public improvements to our Downtown / Riverfront district. Including bulkheading, public walkway and boardwalks, parking areas, public plazas, Maurice River Pedestrian Bridge & Waterfront Park Improvements.
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