Board of commissioners passes parking restriction ordinance

At its latest public session, Haddonfield’s board of commissioners facilitated the entrance and exit of emergency vehicles in the event of a police, fire or medical situation on two borough streets with final passage of an ordinance that restricts parking within certain sections of both. 

At the Oct. 27 virtual session, parking prohibitions for all dates and times, on both sides of the roadway, were approved for a stretch of Douglass Avenue from its intersection with East Park Avenue, southeast to its dead end as well as on Colonial Avenue just south of its junction with Lake Street, to a point 50 feet from its starting point at Kings Highway East.

Both streets have narrow rights-of-way, with Colonial’s traffic allowed in only one direction, from Kings Highway northward to Lake. 

Commissioner Colleen Bianco Bezich said the ordinance was in response to situations over the last several months, where it was impossible for emergency teams to adequately respond to calls because they had to navigate the course of the roads, plus vehicles parked along the pavement within each. 

Restrictions took effect immediately upon the unanimous board vote.

Although waiting until the end of October to officially Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the governing body also approved a resolution authorizing the borough to enter into its annual shared-services agreement with Cherry Hill Victim Services Domestic Violence Response Team. 

Haddonfield’s contribution for the current calendar year for the effort is $2,500, to aid the township and its Side by Side program, which provides assistance to the Cherry Hill Police Department in dealing effectively with incidents of domestic violence.

In other news:

• Commissioners issued a proclamation in keeping with the upcoming Veterans Day commemoration, declaring November as World War II Veterans Remembrance Month. 
• The triumvirate also moved to pass the annual parking-fee freeze throughout the borough from Nov. 27 through Dec. 25, but also added a proviso in the resolution that parking would be prohibited on Kings Highway, from its intersections with Grove and Potter Streets to the PATCO bridge, between 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. for all of December.
• Another resolution unanimously approved by commissioners will allow Candlelight Shopping and Small Business Weekend to proceed, with the standard social-distancing precautions in place. The former is set for Fridays during the hours of 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. from Nov. 27 through Dec. 18, while the latter is scheduled to take place from Nov. 27 to 29.