BERKELEY – There is good news for township taxpayers in the 2015 budget: no increase in taxes.

The tax rate for municipal purposes will remain the same, at 60 cents per $100 of assessed value, under the $45.1 million budget, which the Township Council introduced Aug. 10.

Here are five budget facts:

• The total budget is $45,194,095, up $1,212,248 over the 2014 spending plan. That’s a 3 percent increase.

• The main reasons for the increase? Employee health insurance is up 11 percent, from $6,052,000 to $6,750,000. The reserve for uncollected taxes is up 10 percent, to $3,451,355. Tax appeals have increased in the wake of superstorm Sandy, officials have said.

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BERKELEY —  Add Berkeley to a growing chorus of official voices asking the state to roll back new Coastal A zone requirements that local officials say could be a burden to homeowners attempting to rebuild or elevate their houses.

The Township Council voted Monday night to adopt a resolution asking the state to rescind the new Coastal A zone regulations, which went into effect last month under the state’s newly adopted Uniform Construction Code.

“These regulations are now going to put several of our homeowners in a precarious position,”  Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. said. “To impose these harsh restrictions is unfair.”

Councilman James Byrnes agreed, saying the new regulations are “a hardship on people who have already rebuilt.”

About 400 homes in Berkeley fall in the new Coastal A zone. Last week, Toms River’s Township Council adopted a similar resolution asking the state to repeal the Coastal A zone requirements.

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BERKELEY – Demolition day arrived at last for the Beachwood Shopping Center.

As he had long promised, Mayor Carmen A. Amato Jr. donned a hard hat and drove a backhoe to begin demolition of the Route 9 shopping center’s rotted awning. In a spitting rain Tuesday, the mayor used the machine’s claw-like excavator to tear down pieces of the awning as a small crowd of onlookers applauded.

Township officials and media members looked on as pieces of rotted wood were ripped from the building and fell to the ground.

“The weather is not stopping us,” Amato said before climbing aboard the backhoe. “This is the culmination of a lot of hours of work. It’s a great day for Berkeley.”

The demolition started at the site of the old Wickery store.

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BERKELEY It’s been described as breathtakingly beautiful, with pristine grasslands, dense woods and several sparkling lakes.

The 775-acre site off Hickory Lane in Berkeley will soon belong to Ocean County.

The county will pay $11.2 million for the New Jersey Pulverizing Company site, which is located adjacent to the Ocean County Utilities Authority’s central treatment plant off Hickory Lane. The money for the purchase will come from the county’s Natural Lands Trust Fund.

K. Hovnanian once planned to build as many as 4,500 homes on the property, which has been owned by the sand mining company for nearly 100 years.

“The site is absolutely breathtaking in its beauty,” said Freeholder Director John C. Bartlett Jr., who serves as liaison to the county’s Parks and Recreation Department. “It’s quiet, it’s serene, it’s beautiful and it’s unique.”

The purchase was greeted enthusiastically by Berkeley Mayor Carmen A. Amato Jr., who attended Wednesday’s public hearing on the purchase. The freeholders voted 5 to 0 to buy the property.

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