Catch up on the biggest stories in Moorestown this week.
The 2017 municipal budget passed unanimously at Monday’s council meeting, and a retired teachers is giving used school supplies a new home. Catch up on everything from the past week in the Weekly Roundup.
Council unanimously passes 2017 municipal budget
Moorestown Township Council unanimously adopted the 2017 municipal budget at the Monday, July 10 meeting. This marks the second consecutive year council passed a budget with an overall tax decrease. The municipal tax rate will decrease 0.25 percent from last year, dropping from 41 cents per $100 of assessed property value to 40.9 cents. The average assessed home of $448,000 will pay $1,832 in local purpose taxes with $1,662 going to the municipal budget with approximately $170 going to the library. By comparison, the average assessed home of $441,700 paid a municipal purpose tax of $1,647.54 last year.
Unwanted school supplies find new home
Sky McClain taught for more than 30 years, and during her time as an elementary school art teacher, the last day of school would often leave her floored. Students cleaning out their desks would have trash bins overflowing with perfectly good school supplies. So, three years ago, she asked teachers at Kresson Elementary School where she taught if she could collect the supplies students were disposing of on the last day of school to give away to teachers whose classrooms were sorely undersupplied. Since then, word of mouth about McClain’s efforts has spread, and this year, McClain collected three times as many supplies as in years past. She spent the last month sorting and organizing the gently used supplies to begin her open giveaway run out of the garage of her Moorestown home on Monday, July 10.
Moorestown Religious Leaders Series: Reverend Linda Pepe
Before the Rev. Linda Pepe was the pastor of First Baptist Church of Moorestown, she was working as an interior designer. Today, she is using that skill to cultivate an atmosphere of inclusivity and acceptance as she enters her sixth year as pastor at First Baptist Church of Moorestown.Since coming to Moorestown six years ago, Pepe has issued in quite a bit of change, bringing with her a progressive style. The banner that hangs at the entrance to First Baptist is Pepe’s mantra of sorts. It reads: “God loves you just the way you are … no matter what.” She said what makes First Baptist different from some other churches is members of the LGBTQ community walk in and are truly accepted. She said some churches just tolerate homosexuality. At First Baptist, no one is challenged for being gay; they’re just accepted, Pepe said.
