It’s been quite a year for Moorestown Township. It has seen management changes, more debate about its athletic fields and municipal complex and the approval of a landscape-changing ordinance that will now permit liquor licenses to be sold at an estimated cost of $1 million per.
Here, therefore, is a look back at what happened in the very busy year of 2011.
January
To kick off the year, Moorestown Acme shoppers had to find a new place to buy groceries. At the start of the month, ACME officials announced two of its Burlington County locations would shut its doors by the end of the month. One scheduled to close was located at 350 Young Ave., in the Moorestown Commons shopping center.
It ultimately closed its doors in February.
Residents had a new mayor, deputy mayor and two new council members at the 2011 reorganization meeting.
Newcomers Stacey F. Jordan and Chris Chiacchio were sworn in to four-year terms on the town council.
John Button took over as mayor as well, after a nomination and vote from fellow council members. He was sworn in to a two-year term as mayor.
Greg Gallo was appointed and sworn in to a one-year term as the township’s deputy mayor.
The month finished with Moorestown student Brandon Pugh being named the Moorestown Service Club Council’s 2011 High School Good Citizen.
February
Moorestown officials decided to move ahead with an initiative to improve the township’s recreational assets. Members from a sub committee of the Moorestown Recreation Advisory Committee presented an initiative called K.I.D.S (Keep Investing and Developing Sports/Recreation). It involves a plan to update, maintain and expand Moorestown’s current recreation fields and facilities.
The group’s recommendations under phase one included the installation of two turf baseball infields at Pryor Park, as well as the installation of lighting so that all fields at the facility can be lit for night games.
The group also recommended installing an irrigation system at Wesley Bishop Park, expanding and improving the current gravel-based parking area at the facility and improving drainage and signage.
The first phase entails resurfacing and other repairs to the roller hockey rinks at Wesley Bishop Park, converting the lower field there into a turf field and expanding the length of one of the fields to create a warm-up area and two parallel fields, something group members said would allow for hosting sports tournaments, which they said would bring in revenue that could be used for maintenance of the facilities.
The Roots of Moorestown statue that graces the front lawn of the Moorestown Community House, greeting residents on a daily basis, suddenly went missing in February after five years of going untouched.
The Roots of Moorestown is one of about 30, five-foot nipper dog statues created by local artists and auctioned off during a fund raiser more than five years ago.
The month closed out with Moorestown voters participating in the township’s fire district elections. Voters in Fire District №1, which serves the eastern side of the township, approved a $1.7 million tax levy to support the district’s budget. According to results released by the district, the budget passed on a 97 to 39 vote.
Incumbent fire commissioners Stephen H. Bixby and Max R. Fisher were voted into new, three-year terms on the board of fire commissioners for Fire District №1. According to results, Bixby received 126 total votes and Fisher received 133 to fill the respective seats.
Voters on the west side of town, served by the Lenola Fire District, approved a $683,265 tax levy to support the fire district’s budget. According to results, the budget passed on a 24 to 7 vote.
Registered voters also elected incumbent commissioner Michael W. Maahs to fill an open seat on the board of fire commissioners. According to results, Maahs received 29 total votes to fill the three-year term.
March
In a surprisingly quiet start to the board of education’s series of community budget forums, members of the BOE and district officials presented the 2011–12 budget to the public, along with district plans for the next four years.
Before presenting the numbers, officials warned of pending painful cuts, not only this year, but also for subsequent budgets leading to 2015.
It is by 2015 the board hopes its Vision 2015 initiative will have shaped a smaller, more efficient organization through a series of interlocking strategies that include restructuring, redesigning, reconnecting, revenue generating and reinvesting district operations.
The board of education was shaken up a bit in mid-March, as Larry Friedman, a nine-year member, announced he was withdrawing from the 2011 race.
He cited the upcoming retirement from his career in the insurance industry, and an unclear path in his retirement plans, as reasons for leaving.
In other school district news, March ended with a change at the Baker Elementary School. David Tate left the school and the district and tapped math supervisor Shelly Rowe as the school’s next leader.
Tate was promoted to the district’s director of special educations services, a position that became effective July 1.
Superintendent John Bach recommended Rowe, who was a sixth- through 12th-grade supervisor of mathematics, and the board approved the recommendation.
April
The Friends of Fullerton got good news at the start of April, as they received an OK to accept funding from the township to rebuild their beloved park.
The council gave final approval to $150,000 in appropriations from an existing bond ordinance that allowed for various improvements at the currently defunct play area at Fullerton Park.
The township’s money will go toward a new play structure at the park, as well as replacing fencing, surface material and picnic tables.
The state apportionment commission approved a new, updated legislative map that has shifted Moorestown from the 8th Legislative District to the 7th District.
Moorestown’s local legislators are Sen. Diane B. Allen and Assemblymen Herb Conway Jr. and Jack Conners.
The state constitution requires the state apportionment commission to redraw the lines of the state’s 40 legislative districts, from which the 40 senators and 80 members of the General Assembly are elected, according to the commission’s website.
Legislative redistricting is done at the beginning of each decade, to account for population changes, that occur within the state during the previous decade (based on census figures).
The township’s municipal complex task force considered all of its options for a new town hall/library complex, and came up with a recommendation.
Its choice is a $220 per square foot project that would be constructed in two phases and would keep all functions — police, administration, court, library and recreation — at the current Second and Church Street location.
Button pledged that township officials would keep on moving forward in the absence of Township Manager Chris Schultz. In mid-April, Schultz was officially appointed township manager of nearby Medford Township. He beat more than 30 other hopefuls for the position.
Moorestown voters headed to the polls this month for the annual school election and he school district’s proposed 2011–12 budget was passed.
The budget carried a 1.19 percent tax levy increase over last year. Residents in the average assessed home of $534,100 will pay an increase of $80 per year, or $6.67 per month, in school taxes. The approved budget included the elimination of 31 full-time equivalent positions for the coming school year, reductions that resulted in elimination and modifications to programs across the district.
May
A longtime park project came to an end at the start of the month.
Lead by Leathers and Associates and the Friends of Fullerton, hundreds of community volunteers were out at Fullerton Park, rain or shine, working five days straight complete the playground.
Meanwhile, you probably saw the bright green signs that popped up on lawns across town: “COUNCIL- DON’T VIOLATE OUR OPEN SPACE TRUST. MSOS. Moorestown Save Open Space.”
The MSOS petitioned the council to change its mind about using money from the Moorestown Open Space, Recreation and Farmland Historic Preservation Trust Fund to pay for part of the Moorestown Recreation Advisory Committee’s K.I.D.S initiative.
Moorestown Save Open Space is a citizen-advocacy group with a goal to ensure open space funds are used for the acquisition and maintenance of true open space in Moorestown.
The group was started by husband and wife team Elizabeth Endres and Mark Hines who, like other residents, became frustrated after council voted 3–2 to approve the use of about $217,000 from the Moorestown Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund for engineering, design and bidding expenses for phase one of the K.I.D.S initiative.
June
The Burlington County Freeholders approved $5 million in grants to 25 towns in its second round of local grants under the Municipal Park Development Program.
Thirteen towns, including Moorestown, received the maximum grant of $250,000.
At the time, parks and recreation director Theresa Miller said the grant would be used at Frank Fullerton Park to improve the play area, baseball field and the basketball and tennis courts.
A local group decided that the July 4 parade would continue this year.
Dave Schill, who heads up the committee, said the group has been trying to resuscitate the parade since it went on hiatus two years ago during a round of township budget cuts. Schill said the group raised about $5,200, a bit more than the $4,000 needed to have adequate police presence at the event.
The committee of about 20 residents actively discussed plans for the parade since last fall.
Township Manager Tom Merchel and Director of Community Development Tom Ford posed a question to members of the council this month about the farmhouse at Swedes Run, gauging interest to see if township funding was worth being spent to repair the antiquated structure.
The council agreed to look at various solutions in conjunction with the historical society and the open space committee before committing money to the project.
The township decided to cut the RecycleBank program from the 2011 budget.
Button and Merchel both said that the RecycleBank program will not be offered to Moorestown residents as a cost saving measure for the next budget. Currently, the RecyleBank program costs the township $44,000 annually to offer it to residents. The program was started in 2009.
July
To start the month, the council approved the $22.9 million 2011 budget and taxpayers of Moorestown saw their municipal tax bills increase slightly.
The township council unanimously approved the document, which saw an increase of about a half-cent, bringing the local purpose tax rate up to 29.9 cents per every $100 of assessed property value.
The saga of the liquor licenses began in July, as a representative of the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust confirmed the group, which owns the mall, was conducting research to see how residents would react to another liquor referendum in November.
Joe Coradino, president of PREIT services, confirmed that PREIT conducted a professional telephone survey in June 1 and 2 to gauge the interest of Moorestown voters for a liquor referendum in November.
More research would be conducted by PREIT, he said.
Virtua Health broke ground this month on a new multi-million dollar health and wellness center. The facility will be located at 401 Young Ave.
Ceremonial shovels of earth signaled the official groundbreaking for the $96 million health and wellness center, with the 200,000-square-foot facility expected to open in late 2012.
In a victory for open space enthusiasts, one of the larger working farms was preserved as open space. Members of the council unanimously agreed to preserve the 42-acre Browning-Hess Farm on Lenola Road.
The township agreed to pay 20 percent of the cost to acquire the property — a little more than $467,300 –from Burlington County and to preserve it for open space. The township funding will come from the Moorestown Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund.
The county will pay the remaining 80 percent of the preservation.
Representatives from the township decided to move forward with the first phase of the municipal complex project, which would be to ready schematics for a new township library and administration building bordering Washington Avenue.
The three bodies in the design and debate over the municipal complex were brought together for an update meeting Thursday morning.
The two buildings, said Rick Ragan of Ragan Design Group, would be able to share facilities, rooms and IT equipment.
Administration employees told Ragan they need about 13,500 square-feet in the new town hall to be productive.
Ragan gave some rough estimates as to cost as well, reporting that the new library and town hall would cost about $10 million total to construct.
Representatives from Save the Environment of Moorestown, Moorestown Save Open Space and Concerned Moorestonians, presented the township with a petition of nearly 1,500 signatures from township residents who protested the expenditure of money from the Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund.
The township spent nearly $217,000 from the fund on engineering, design and bidding expenses for phase one of the K.I.D.S initiative.
August
By next spring, township officials said they expect three Strawbridge Lake dams to be sparkling like brand-new. The three dams, acting manager Tom Merchel said, need masonry work, gate repairs and cleaning. The township recently received a report from the state Department of Environmental Protection that highlighted the need for repairs.
The township plans to move forward with the repairs for the Hooten’s, Lower Hooten’s and Moorestown dams.
Representatives from Save the Environment of Moorestown, Moorestown Save Open Space and Concerned Moorestonians had their petition denied by the township. The petition contained nearly 1,500 signatures from township residents who protested the expenditure of money from the Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund.
The township spent nearly $217,000 from the fund on engineering, design and bidding expenses for phase one of the K.I.D.S initiative.
The petition was rejected by the township and its lawyer, according to Bruce Carskadon, a Concerned Moorestonians member, for several “deficiencies.”
Representatives from the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, meanwhile, submitted two petitions to the township clerk to have two referendums placed on the November ballot to permit the sale of liquor at restaurants in Moorestown Mall.
Chris Russell, a PREIT representative, said the first referendum would ask voters to approve the sale of liquor in Moorestown Township. If the township clerk declares the petition has enough signatures, he said, the referendum would be placed on the ballot. Ultimately, it was.
The second referendum question would ask residents to approve the sale of liquor by the glass at only fine dining restaurants in the Moorestown Mall. It would restrict liquor sale to just the mall, he said, and would not be allowed anywhere else in the township.
Later on in the month, solicitor Thomas Coleman found there were no deficiencies in either petitions submitted to the township. It was his recommendation to the council that they were legal and should appear as referendum questions on the ballot.
The measure passed unanimously and appeared on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.
The month closed out with a bang, as an earthquake struck up and down the east coast on Aug. 23 at 1:51 p.m. The quake was measured at a 5.9 on the Richter Scale, according to the National Weather Service.
The service reported the epicenter as 34 miles northwest of Richmond, Va. or 87 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. There was no significant damage in the township or in the state.
September
It was a wet opening to the month, but Moorestown got off pretty easily in the wake of Hurricane Irene. The Category 1 hurricane came and went, but didn’t cause as much damage as originally estimated.
Sgt. Lee Lieber, emergency management coordinator for the township, said there was some flooding that weekend and several downed trees, which caused some difficulties, but overall, Moorestown fared well during the storm.
Judge Anne Marie Bumb ruled in favor of a local family in early September and ordered the school district to reimburse the Duman family for tuition costs associated with their son, who is a special-needs student.
The Duman family also sued the school district in civil court in 2008 after the school district did not create an Individualized Education Plan for their son so they could determine if the school district could provide him with a free and appropriate public education, as required through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Furthering a push for township liquor sales, PREIT representatives took another step forward in trying to convince voters to approve such sales at Moorestown Mall.
PREIT pledged to purchase four of the proposed six liquor licenses at $1 million each if the referendums passed.
The $1 million figure would represent the largest amount paid for any liquor license in South Jersey in the last 12 months, according to PREIT representatives.
After 16 months of intense negotiations, the board of education and the Moorestown Education Association ratified new, three-year contracts for all members.
The contracts will run through June 30, 2013. According to BOE representatives, the new contracts will not have an effect on the school tax rate for the first year of the three-year deal.
October
Bill Cox, a local resident and lawyer, filed a lawsuit against the county and the township solicitor for allowing a referendum question submitted by Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust to be placed on the Nov. 8 general election ballot.
Cox submitted the suit claiming PREIT did not wait the necessary five years to resubmit a referendum question on alcohol sales.
Later on in the month, Burlington County Judge Ronald Bookbinder County ruled in favor of PREIT and the township ¬–and liquor-license referendums to remain on the ballot.
Bookbinder ruled in favor of the defendants, citing that the 2011 referendum questions on the ballot are consistent with previous decisions put forth by the Legislature and Appellate Divisions. Bookbinder said that if he ruled otherwise, he would be overruling the Legislature and Appellate Division, which include former Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll.
Several days after Bookbinder ruled in favor of PREIT and the township, the Appellate Division upheld the judge’s decision.
On Wednesday, Oct. 19, the division upheld Bookbinder’s decision and allowed the referendums to appear on the ballot. Cox said he would consider appealing the ruling at the Supreme Court level.
The school district appealed a ruling by Judge Anne Marie Bumb in early September, which ordered the district to reimburse the Duman family for tuition costs associated with their son, according to the son’s father.
The district, according to Scott Duman, father of the special needs student in question, filed an appeal with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The district had 30 days to appeal the decision if it so wished.
This is the second appeal the district has made in this case.
The district originally appealed a ruling in favor of the Duman family when it was heard at the state court level.
November
Moorestown hired a new township manager at the start of November after more than a year with an interim manager.
The members of council unanimously approved a resolution to hire Scott Carew.
Meanwhile, vters overwhelmingly passed both referendum questions at the Nov. 8 general elections for the allowance of liquor to be sold in the township and be restricted only to the Moorestown Mall.
Voters approved the first referendum question — the allowance of liquor licenses to be sold in the township — by an unofficial count of 4,138 to 2,750 according to Moorestown Township representatives.
Voters approved the second referendum question — restricting the sale of liquor licenses to fine dining establishments at the Moorestown Mall — by an unofficial count of 3,750 to 2,876 according to the township.
Just days after the election, Coradino estimated liquor could be served at restaurants at the mall by August.
Coradino said PREIT would begin construction, meanwhile, on a new, 12-screen movie theater at the mall.
Carew’s first meeting was hardly just an introductory function for the former Eastampton township manager. He jumped into his new position and suggested the township put off approving a bond ordinance for $1.5 million for preliminary design and planning work for the municipal complex project.
Carew lobbied the council to wait until the following meeting, so he could get in touch with representatives from Maple Shade and two other municipalities to discuss the idea of sharing a court system.
Moorestown and Maple Shade currently share court space. Carew said there are two options for a shared-court system, with one municipality taking control and using its own staff as the lead agency.
Moorestown is looking to be the lead agency for this shared service, he said, with a new courtroom being included in the construction at the new municipal complex.
December
Button stressed to residents the township is not slowing down with its new municipal complex program. This was after the council agreed to appropriate the use of $1.5 million for the project, which will be used for expenses related to planning and designing.
Merchel said the township had “nearly exhausted” the amount appropriated for the project up until this point, when he was asked to explain why the township needed to spend more funding at this time by Councilman Michael Testa.
Still in the design phase, Merchel said the township has used about $2.75 million so far on the project. With this newly passed ordinance, the township has an opportunity to use up to $1.5 million, but as of December, has budgeted for the use of about $1.1 million.
Another year, another budgetary cycle is starting. The township kicked off its budget season in December with a preliminary meeting between department heads, the mayor, the township manager and the township business administrator.
One of the pressing issues that will most likely come into play for the next year is the issuance and sale of liquor licenses.
Button said the issue was touched upon briefly at the preliminary budget meeting. With PREIT pledging to purchase the licenses at $1 million each, Button said he would be surprised if council would set the minimum bid price for the licenses at less than $1 million.
When the township receives word back from the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the vote is finally approved, the township clerk and solicitor will draft an ordinance regarding the licenses that Button said he hopes will bring to the township council in January.
Button stressed, however, the township council has yet to set a substantive price for the liquor licenses. It could change, he said, when the township clerk and solicitor craft the ordinances.
Carew said the preliminary meeting was held to review this year’s financial situation and to review the current debt obligations in the township, he said.
It’s necessary to have this meeting so that council is better prepared to deliberate on the proposed town hall and field projects, Carew said. However, it is too early to say how things are shaping up for next year, he reported.
Council took a firm step forward at the end of the month, as it authorized Carew to go out to bid for three separate field projects, and to see exactly how much the athletic-field improvement plan would cost taxpayers.
The work, which includes improvements to three fields — Wesley Bishop North, Wesley Bishop South and Pryor Park — would likely be funded, or partially funded, by the township’s open-space trust fund.
Carew said all three projects should cost the township about $4 million.
It’s important for Moorestown residents to view the project as a township project, not just a project for a special-interest group in town, Carew said.
The use of funding from the open-space trust fund, however, has been a subject of controversy among Moorestown voters for the past several years. Known as the K.I.D.S initiative, township voters approved the measure in 2007, which enables the township to use funding from the open-space trust fund to improve athletic fields.
The OSTF runs through 2028, and is slated to raise more than $13 million through its lifetime. Currently, township residents pay a 1 cent tax per $1,000 of assessed property value to the OSTF.
