At Monday night’s Cherry Hill Township Council meeting, a bond ordinance for about $3.5 million was approved on first reading for the township’s public safety communications project.
Cherry Hill officials are planning a major upgrade from the police department’s communications system.
At last Monday night’s township council meeting, a bond ordinance was passed on first reading for the public safety communications project. The $3.5 million project would allow the township to install a new communications system for the police department.
Chief of Police William Monaghan explained during the caucus portion of the meeting why the upgrades were so important. Township police operate on an 800-megahertz system installed back in 1999. Township business administrator Lenore Rosner said the communications system is near the end of its lifespan.
The new system will provide a number of benefits. Over the past 15 years, many surrounding towns have switched to 700-megahertz systems. With Cherry Hill joining other towns on 700-megahertz, emergency personnel will be able to communicate with surrounding towns and other first responders.
“It will give us the interoperability between other towns, every other town within Camden County and Burlington County, as well as Gloucester County,” Monaghan said. “It will give us the ability to communicate directly with our fire department just by switching to a different channel, which we currently don’t have.”
The bond ordinance includes the purchase of all of the equipment necessary for the project, including new radios for inside the police vehicle, portable radios, console upgrades for the police department’s dispatch center and upgrades to the department’s radio tower.
The township will not need to construct radio towers for the project. In addition to the police department’s existing tower near town hall, the switch to 700-megahertz will allow the department to use towers in surrounding towns such as Haddonfield and Pennsauken.
“We’re able to tie into infrastructure that’s already existing,” Monaghan said.
If the ordinance is approved on second reading, it will take the police department about a year to get the new system fully operational. Monaghan said adopting the bond ordinance in May will allow the police department to roll out the new system by June 2018.
The bond ordinance will be up for second reading and a public hearing at council’s next meeting on Monday, May 8.
Township to re-finance library bond
Township officials plan to save money through acquisition of the leasehold interest for the Cherry Hill Public Library.
Council approved a bond ordinance worth $7.2 million on first reading to acquire the leasehold interest for the Cherry Hill Public Library from the Camden County Improvement Authority.
According to the lease agreement between the township and CCIA from 2002, the township leased the library property to CCIA, with CCIA sub-leasing the land and the completed library back to the township. According to the township’s fiscal year 2016 audit, the township paid CCIA approximately $1,628,400 for the library lease last fiscal year.
Rosner said the township has an option beginning on May 1 to acquire the leasehold interest from CCIA. The bond ordinance would allow the township to acquire the lease from CCIA and re-finance it. Rosner said acquisition and refinancing would save the township about $763,000 over the next five budget cycles.
“We have a very strong rating now from Moody’s and we’d like to take advantage of the low interest environment and our good rating to try and maximize that savings,” Rosner said.
