Mt. Laurel Township recently intruded two major funding ordinances – one to fund the township’s 2019 Roads Program and one to fund various capital purchases.
The ordinance funding the road program would see the township bond for $5.4 million to repair 27 roads in the township, while the ordinance funding the capital projects, set at about $2.5 million, will be funded through money gained from the township recently refinancing previous notes.
Roads included in this year’s program include: Union Mill Road (from Laurel Acres Park to Academy Drive), Atrium Way, Horizon Way, West Park Drive, Briarwood Road, Birchfield Drive, Braddock Terrance, Willow Way, Boothby Drive, Ark Road (from Route 38 to Union Mill Road), Ark Road (from Union Mill Road to Hainesport-Mt. Laurel Road) Kirkwood Drive, Kirkwood Court, Mountainview Road, Berkeley place, Ramblewood Lane, Cemetery Road (Church Road to Stanwyck Road) Cemetery Road (Maple Glenn Road to Cranbury Hill Court), Cornwallis Drive, Edinburgh Lane, Edinburgh Court, Chatham Road, Chickory Drive, Fleetwood Avenue, Hooton Road, Briggs Road and Colony Place.
As for capital ordinance, projects will be funded for the Mt. Laurel EMS and Mt. Laurel Public Works Department, as well as police information technology upgrades and buildings upgrades to the Mt. Laurel Community Center, police department and township court office.
For Mt. Laurel’s Public Works Department, Director of Municipal Services Jerry Masica said he was requesting a generator that would allow the DPW to retain all power in the event of a wide-spread outage.
According to Mascia, DPW’s current generator only provides emergency lights and few standard power outlets to the DPW building, while the maintenance garage has no power for air compressors or welding equipment.
Mascia said that puts DPW at a “disadvantage” when dealing with issues such as snow or flooding.
Mascia also requested funds to replace a 2006 brush truck at the end of its life and funds to replace a 1997 dump truck at the end of its life.
Finally, Masica requested new garage bay doors for the DPW maintenance shop, as the current doors are nearly 40 years old and can no longer be patched or repaired. Masica said new doors would also better insulate the shop.
For Mt. Laurel EMS, Chief Joseph Stringfellow said the department will be remounting two ambulances, which have more than 140,000 miles and 134,000 miles on them respectively.
According to Stringfellow, with the volume of calls Mt. Laurel EMS responds to in a given year, the department puts about a combined 100,000 miles on its two ambulances per year.
With the remounts, Stringfellow said the ambulances would each have their boxes set atop a new chassis to save Mt. Laurel EMS money, as the process is cheaper than purchasing new ambulances outright.
However, Stringfellow said this was most likely the last set of remounts Mt. Laurel EMS could perform on each ambulance, as now each ambulance will have been remounted twice.
Stringfellow said Mt. Laurel EMS was also requesting two new stretchers that would be safer, as they would allow a load system that would take weight off ambulances and EMTs.
Stringfellow said the stretchers would allow Mt. Laurel EMS to reduce workers compensations claims, many of which Stringfellow said come from “lift-related” injuries.
He also said the new stretchers would also handle bariatric patients more easily, as Mt. Laurel EMS often deals with calls with patients upward of 500 pounds – including slightly more than 90 calls last year.
As for upgrades to the court office, the township is effectively running out of space to retain records for the periods of time now mandated by state law, according to Mt. Laurel Court Administrator Valerie Brothers.
Upgrades would extend the building to give the office more room to retain records and operate.
According to Brothers, in the last 25 years, the township’s paper record volume has doubled if not tripled due to the growth of the town.
Brothers said the township saw more than 13,000 people attend municipal court last year alone.
The upgrades would also allow the township to install a second service window and a second credit card machine to faster process those paying violations.
According to Mt. Laurel Township Manager Meredith Tomczyk, remaining building projects at the Mt. Laurel Community Center would replace sections of carpet starting to peel up off the floor, while upgrades at the police department would relate to cubicles and filing space, as Tomczyk said the MLPD was also running out of space due to retention needs.
