This past winter, Evesham Township entered into a deal with Burlington County to assume snowplowing duties for county roads that run through town in exchange for reimbursement from the county.
Now the township is looking into the possibility of having parts of Main Street and Maple Avenue currently under county authority become part of the township permanently.
Mayor Randy Brown said the discussion goes back to January when the idea of assuming snow plowing duties was decided, and he again started a discussion at the most recent town council meeting.
“I think it’s time we begin serious discussion about what the process would be and what the cost would be in having Main Street and Maple be township roads,” Brown said.
Brown’s idea was for the town to take over Maple Ave between Routes 70 and 73 and Main Street between Route 73 and Elmwood Road.
“The preliminary thought to start the discussion was that if we were to take Maple from Route 73 where it comes off from behind Evans School behind the Shell, take Maple down to Route 70, and then start on Route 73 where you get off where the Starbucks is, and run that all the way out to Elmwood,” Brown said.
Brown said one benefit of having the roads under township control would be the easier process developers would have when undertaking projects on the roads.
Currently developers must get planning board approval in Evesham and must also get planning board approval from the county to develop on Main Street and Maple Avenue.
“If you just talk the cost to the private sector, you would be eliminating cost to the private sector, and the county now then has a say in what gets developed and what the traffic flows are and could hold up future projects,” Brown said.
Township Manager William Cromie said the idea to take over the roads could be a viable option, and would suggest offering the county an exchange of comparable length of roadway.
He also outlined issues with the roads that would have to be considered before the township could take them over.
“There are some things along Main Street that need to be thought about, traffic lights, the electricity and maintenance of the traffic lights, the culvert that goes under the road near Knox Boulevard and a number of other things,” Cromie said.
Councilman Robert DiEnna noted that the township should be cautious concerning any utility or mechanical issues underneath the ground that the township would also assume with the potential new roads.
“I’d be more concerned that what you don’t see than what you do see,” DiEnna said. “We know what’s above ground, we know how to service those items.”
Councilman Steve Zeuli also said the town would have to look at the costs of maintaining the roads, both in the short and long term.
“Before we would do that we would need to make a full assessment of all the costs,” Zeuli said. “Both in the short term and in the long term, because it’s not just what needs to be done today or tomorrow, but 20 years from now, just to repave those roads could just be ridiculously expensive.”
Cromie and Zeuli are currently in the process of reaching out to county officials to see if they would be interested in taking the discussion further.
“I know Mr. Zeuli and Mr. Cromie have excellent relationships with the county,” Brown said. “Obviously they pulled that deal off in the winter time.”
