CRANFORD — The Cranford Township Committee approved two resolutions in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) home-elevation project at its Monday night meeting that will allow more residents to mitigate flooding on their properties.

The township has been working with the owners of 14 flood-prone properties to apply federal funding to various home-elevation projects throughout the community for the past year, Business Administrator Lavona Patterson said. Contracts to lift the final home, located at 12 Forest Avenue, were approved Monday night after a long wait.

“We are beyond ecstatic that this is happening,” Ms. Patterson said. “It’s been over a year. We’ve been through four bids, four different designs, and met with the state three times to get a permit from the NJDEP.”

The township will now move into its next round of home elevations and will be working with 14 more property owners (all of whom have already been approved by FEMA).

“We’re continuing to move forward with home elevations as we’ve talked about doing in the past,” Mayor Brian Andrews said. “We have a set of homes approved for FEMA and we’re already looking at the next step. We’re very excited about it.”

In addition, the mayor provided an update about the ongoing dust issue at 750 Walnut Avenue.

“I want to thank our team who have been working to address the concerns of citizens in the town. The most pressing issue has been the dust issue, and I want to commend the business administrator as well as the construction official. There were a few changes we had the construction company make to address the dust, that was really bad a few weeks ago,” MayorAndrews said.

There were three changes that were made to the site in the past few weeks and residents have reported they are making a difference.

“One was additional street cleaning. We increased the street sweeping from four hours a day to 10 hours a day to try to get ahead of the issue. Two, a large tracking pad (was added) for the trucks that enter and leave the facility.

So this is an area that I believe they’re using stone at the moment so they’re not driving on the dirt and mud and getting it on their tires and rolling it onto the street and creating an issue,” Mayor Andrews said. “Third, a dedicated truck washdown area, so it’s a second water truck they’re using to clean off every vehicle before it hits our streets again. We’ve heard from residents it’s making a difference. We’re entering a dry period where we haven’t had much rain in a while, so it’s going to test this system. We have an engineering inspector on site daily to make sure they’re taking these measures and judging if more is needed.”

The committee also announced Cranford to be a certified film-ready community before making a motion to return to closed-session workshop.

“Cranford has become a certified film-ready community,” Commissioner Kathleen Miller-Prunty said. “What that means is that Cranford can promote itself as a filming destination and connects TV and filming professionals across the state and nation. After this inaugural class, we will be listed on the NJ Television Commission website and on their location library. Caren Demyen of the DMC and Jason Knight have been working on making the permit process easier for filmmakers to come in. This draws people to our town and these producers make donations to the town, so it’s very beneficial.”