Before kicking off official business at the Evesham Township Council meeting on April 14, the governing body took time to honor Carl Scutt, a Gloucester County resident promoted from sergeant to lieutenant in a brief ceremony attended by family and friends.
The council also honored Girl Scout Kathryn Bsales with the gold award for her work planting a native species garden at DeMasi School. The garden is meant to be used as a tool for students to learn the importance of native plants, according to Bsales.
Council members at the meeting also addressed questions and concerns about Township Engineer Tim Staszewski’s presentation of a road analysis. In previous meetings, Staszewski was asked to look at township roads as a whole in order to facilitate the creation of an asset management plan that would determine a railway program’s budget.
“We use national standards for road ratings,” he said. “Two individuals from our office physically drove 175 miles of township road and created individual ratings for each road. From there, we were able to identify how each of these roads stacks up against each other.”
The report was established for each road that has different segments. The standard for examining those roadways is determined by cracks, potholes, and drain issues. Each resulting report is identified on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being the worst and 10 the best, according to Staszewski.
A breakdown of the cost for covering 175 miles of road work would involve a five-year plan based on an investment of $2 million a year. Or the council could decide on a 30 year plan that would estimate the needed amount of investment each year of that plan. If the council did decide on a 30 year life cycle, doing all the roads would bring the cost to $4 million a year.
“To be able to list out all of the roads here in town and have a clear and concise plan for how we’re going to take care of the roads, which probably the number one complaint that we get from residents is our roads, it’s really helpful for me, that we’re going to be able to answer those questions in a clear and concise way,” said Mayor Jaclyn Veasy.
Other items discussed at the meeting:
- Ordinance 20-4-2021: amends the township code found in chapter three of the administrative code.
- Ordinance 21-5-2021: first reading to repeal ordinance 8-2-2021, which provides salaries and compensation to be paid to officers and employees of Shamong and substitutes salaries and compensation for the year.
- Resolution 125 2021: appointment of a temporary qualified purchasing agent.
- Resolution 127 2021: amends resolution 12 to 12 2020, allowing the Human Rights Advisory Council to include high-school students.
- Evesham police made several Facebook posts to keep the community aware of scammers.
- Upcoming events: On April 19 at 6 p.m., sports unity awards will celebrate kids and what their sports mean to them. There will be a food truck event on April 24 at the Promenade.
The next Evesham council meeting will be held on May 19 at 7 p.m. All meetings are available through a livestream. For more information on the April 14 council session,go to https://evesham-nj.org/councilmtgvideos
