Moorestown had its fair share of changes in 2012. With the New Year approaching, here is a look back on this past year in Moorestown.
January
A bill signed by Gov. Christie changed the way you vote in school board elections for years to come.
Christie approved a bill that gives school districts the option of moving board of education elections to November — at the same time as general elections.
Additionally, the bill allows all school budgets that fall within the 2-percent cap to be passed automatically, with no approval needed by township voters. A school board would have to present a “second question” for voter approval if a budget is proposed to exceed the 2-percent cap.
Business administrator for the Moorestown Township Public School District Lynn Shugars said the district spends about $20,000 a year hosting the school board elections. The Moorestown elections were moved to November.
February
Township Manager Scott Carew stressed to council members that a decision on the reassessment needed to be made before the month was out for the changes to take effect in 2012.
Carew said the reassessment would do two things, namely mitigate the tax appeals due to the economy and mitigate tax appeals due to the revaluation that was completed in 2007.
“The reassessment will help level it all out,” Carew said.
The youngest member of Moorestown Board of Education announced he would run for a 3-year term on the board.
Brandon Pugh, 19, a member of the class of 2011 at Moorestown Township High School, officially declared his candidacy for one of three, 3-year open seats on the school district board of education.
Viruta Health and Wellness Center finished one stage of construction in February.
It raised the final beam in its new Health and Wellness Center during a topping off ceremony on Friday, Feb. 17.
Mayor John Button, township council members and leadership from Frauenshuh, the developer, and the general contractor P. Agnes were present.
The Moorestown Fire District 2 elections increased the fire-taxrate for the 2012 budget.
Fire District 2 notched only 26 votes for its $1.25 million 2012 budget, which featured a slight raise to the fire-tax rate.
All 26 of the votes cast in the election were in favor of the budget, unanimously approving the document.
The approved increase is .001 cent per every $100 of assessed property value, district representatives reported. The fire-tax rate is now .068 cents per every $100 of assessed property value.
The amount raised by taxation would be a little more than $696,000, which is $12,000 more than the 2011 amount.
Moorestown Board of Education continued its search in February for a new superintendent Moorestown Township Public School Board of Education President
Don Mishler and the search committee — which included Christina Zajac, Matthew Simeone and Kathy Goldenberg — interviewed six candidates to take over for current Superintendent John Bach at the end of the school year on July 1.
March
The 2012–2013 Moorestown Township School District budget was in line for a zero percent tax levy increase for the next school year, after the board of education unanimously approved its preliminary budget.
Thanks to an increase in state aid slated for next year by Gov. Christie, the school district approved the preliminary $59.13 million budget, which features a flat general school tax levy from last year. The district will receive nearly $3 million in state aid for 2012–13, an increase of more than $254,000 from last year’s budget.
Interest sparked in the old Acme property owned by Moorestown Friends School (MFS).
Deputy Mayor Greg Gallo revealed at a township council meeting that a company was interested in setting up a retail space and had given a detailed presentation at a recent township economic development advisory committee meeting.
April
Two weeks after the Republican Club announced its slate of three council candidates for the June primary, the Moorestown Democratic Committee announced its three candidates to appear on the ballot as well.
The committee selected Greg Newcomer, Brian Sattinger and Mark Hines to be on the ballot for the June primary.
On the other side of the primary ballot, the Moorestown Republican Club announced it was throwing its support behind candidates Phil Garwood, Victoria Napolitano and Pete Palko.
Incumbent council members Greg Gallo and Michael Testa announced earlier in April that they would not be seeking reelection this year.
Moorestown’s history began to take form in community projects.
The newest park planned for Moorestown Township is quickly coming to reality, but the Friends of Percheron Park have to wait for a monitoring process to come to a close before work can begin.
The Friends of the Percheron Park are working to begin construction on a new public park at the intersection of High and Main streets, explained Township Councilman Chris Chiacchio, the liaison to the group.
The historic Swedes Run stone barn was also getting a facelift and restored by several concerned citizens. Township residents have also been donating funds to help restore the barn, which has become more and more dilapidated in recent years.
The Perkins Art Center completed its “Paint Perkins” campaign through donations from the Moorestown community. The campaign was established about a year ago, Special Events and Project Manager Lee Bennett reported, and raised more than $40,210 for the project.
“A big thank you goes out to our community, whose generosity to our Paint Perkins! campaign over the past year will allow the painting of our beautiful building to begin in late spring,” Bennett wrote in a press release. “Thanks to a generous last push from our board and staff, we have been able to move forward on the project; a historic paint analysis was recently completed and we are proceeding with bids from four local painting companies.”
May
The search for a superintendent finally ended in May.
Mishler announced that Brian Betze, the superintendent of the Berlin Township School District, has accepted the district’s offer to be the new superintendent of schools in 2012–13.
Although the Board of Education settled the question of a new superintendent, Moorestown council faced a concern of its own in May.
The East Gate Shopping Center — located across the street from the Moorestown Mall –stepped forward and challenged the legality of an ordinance passed by the township council that restricts the sale of liquor in Moorestown to only the Moorestown Mall property.
Moorestown voters approved two referendum questions in the November 2011 general election.
The first was the approval of the sale of liquor licenses within Moorestown and the second was the restriction of those liquor licenses to only be sold to restaurants in the Moorestown Mall.
The council approved an ordinance on first reading to move ahead with a complete makeover of Pryor Park, the cost of which won’t impact taxes for township residents, largely in part through donations from the Moorestown Youth Baseball Federation.
The group has agreed to donate $15,000 a year for the next 15 years, MYBF resident Bob McCourt said.
The sole company that submitted a bid package to conduct the township’s reassessment project verbally notified administrators it will be pulling its offer.
Appraisal Systems, Inc., notified the township it would be rescinding its offer of $195,098 to perform the reassessment of township properties, Carew reported.
After being closed for part of 2009, all of 2010, and the majority of 2011, the David Gentile Skatepark in Moorestown is once again going to be closed for an extended period of time.
A regularly scheduled inspection of the park revealed several of the wooden structures and obstacles at the park are in dire need of repairs. Theresa Miller, township director of recreation, said the repairs would cost the township about $20,000.
The park first closed to the public on April 19.
Council members approved lighting improvements for area parks in May.
Wesley Bishop North is estimated to cost about $1.51 million to complete — including the construction of a second artificial turf field, grating work and parking lot improvements — but about half of the cost is already covered through private donations from sport clubs.
But council was hit with a possible lawsuit regarding the use of Open Space Funds for improvements to Wesley Bishop Field.
With possible lawsuit from Baron and Brennan, a Voorhees law firm representing a group of Moorestown citizens, the Moorestown Township Council tabled discussions on using funds from the Moorestown Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund to construct turf fields at Wesley Bishop Park North and South.
June
The township council continued to inch toward the introduction of its 2012 budget, one that may include a smaller-than-predicted municipal tax increase.
Just a week after Director of Finance Tom Merchel presented budget scenarios that would increase the average assessed homeowner’s municipal tax bill by $95, he and Carew presented a new idea to the council that cuts the increase almost in half.
By using almost $400,000 from the utility fund, the council can bridge the gap and use only a onecent tax increase in the proposed $22.7 million 2012 budget. It can be introduced this way, Carew said, and then the revenue from the sale of the liquor licenses can be switched with the utility fund.
The five members of council are faced a June 22 deadline set by the state to introduce its 2012 budget, or each member will be fined $25 for every day it goes over.
The council rejected the latest incarnation of the budget, asking Carew and Merchel to present the council with budget options that do not feature a tax levy increase.
By a vote of 3–2, the council rejected a proposed $22.719 million budget that featured a one-cent increase in the local purpose tax rate. Revenue from the possible sale of the liquor licenses was included in the budget to help bridge a gap of more than $600,000, Merchel said, as well as some of the utility fund.
Later in the month, after more than two months and a number of different budget scenarios, the Moorestown Township Council unanimously approved the introduction of the 2012 budget, which includes a small tax hike for the average home.
At a special meeting on Wednesday, June 20, the council approved the introduction of the $22.46 million budget, just two days before a state-mandated deadline.
The budget will feature a flat tax levy after officials trimmed more than $250,000 of appropriations from the document.
They also decided to use $50,000 from the township utility fund to cover some salaries and administrator costs, Button said.
