After a year of community events, happenings in the schools and new developments, Mt. Laurel is preparing to say so long to 2012.
Gov. Christie’s town hall meeting was one of the highlights of the year, rallying the community together at the YMCA.
The Fellowship Redevelopment Project has kept township officials on their toes and will extend into next year.
Hurricane Sandy struck Mt. Laurel, stripping homes of electricity for up to a week, but in all, the township fared well.
Of course, there were also plenty of fun town events, including the ever-popular fall festival.
Now, as the township prepares to enter 2013, let’s take a few minutes to look back on a packed year.
January
As the year commenced, Mayor Jim Keenan said the goal was to keep the tax levy below the 2 percent state-mandated cap in the budget.
“It is the council’s job to try to keep our tax levy down as much as possible, even though it is only 13 percent of the total tax bill,” Keenan said. “We are responsible for providing the public safety (cops) and protect the public health (EMS and trash removal) in town. It is a delicate balance that we need to constantly monitor. It is very hard to do in these difficult economic times. I wish that the state would assist municipalities in this endeavor, but they seem to be tone deaf to our pleas.”
There was a vacancy to fill in the municipal building when Township Manager Jennifer Blumenthal left on Jan. 6 for a similar job in Brigantine.
A previous township manager, Tom Conway, was appointed to serve as interim until Jan. 27.
Meredith Tomczyk, who joined the township in September 2011 as township clerk, was also named chief financial officer at the same time.
The combination of the jobs ultimately saved taxpayers at least $50,000, according to the January report.
At the end of January, the township readied itself for the third annual Taste of Mt. Laurel.
“The Taste of Mt. Laurel gives people a chance to try food from places that they may not have even known existed in their local area, or may not have otherwise thought to visit. This in turn generates free advertisement and new customers to the local businesses participating in this event,” said Dana Gee, an aide with the parks and recreation department.
February
When February’s chill arrived, The Sun shared some good news from Mt. Laurel Schools.
The district received a $15,000 grant from the Sallie Mae Fund to expand the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) initiative to sixth-grade students in the 2012–2013 school year.
“We are ecstatic to receive this news,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Antoinette Rath said. “We started our STEM program last year at grades five, seven and eight. The Sallie Mae Fund grant will allow us to extend this exciting educational opportunity to our sixth-graders next year also.
Money was saved in another way during the month.
The Board of Education voted to move its election to November. The move, according to reports at the time, could have saved the community $20,000 in election costs.
Rath gave her state of the district presentation during a board meeting, reporting that all was well in the school system.
“We really are working together with the support of the community, a committed staff, a great board of education,” Rath said. “We honestly have redefined thinking outside of the box to create some wonderful educational opportunities for all of Mt. Laurel’s students.”
Development talks were stirring during the month as well.
Lifetime Fitness proposed a more than 100,000-square-foot facility with full fitness offerings, including workout rooms, a café and an outdoor pool.
“It’s hard to imagine this beautiful Lifetime Fitness with this amazing pool and everything when we’re in the situation where we’re haunted every day by boarded-up properties across the way,” Beaver Avenue resident Kimberly DiJohn said of the blight in the area.
March
Talks of a “fiscally astute” budget came in from Mt. Laurel Schools proceedings in March.
“You always take budgets very seriously,” Rath said.
The average Mt. Laurel taxpayer with a home assessed at $142,100 expected a $49.73 tax increase in the 2012–13 district budget.
According to Assistant Superintendent for Business and Board Secretary Robert Wachter Jr., during the public hearing on March 28, the budget this year amounted to $66,944,551.
Over at the township council meeting, a temporary budget of $21,189,451 was approved until the budget could be passed. The move came in anticipation of what would be in the year budget, newly appointed Township Manager Maureen Mitchell said.
Later in the month, Mitchell, who also serves as tax collector, was appointed to the newly created position of Township Purchasing Agent.
Politics heated up for one Mt. Laurel resident and ex-Navy Seal who felt the wrath of Gov. Christie while attending a March town hall meeting in Florence.
Christie called William Brown an “idiot” at the meeting after expressing his opinion on the then-proposed Rutgers-Rowan merger.
“I never said one threatening thing,” Brown said. “He publicly humiliated me. I never said anything to deserve the type of treatment that I got.”
Paws Farm Nature Center, owned by Mt. Laurel Township, ended the month on a positive note for area kids with an Easter egg hunt encompassing 6,000 eggs on March 31.
“We put a whole area filled with straw, and we put the eggs all within those straw areas,” said farm director Pat Halbe.
April
As spring came into view, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Cooper University Hospital and Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center received fleece blankets to be given to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy from a 12-year-old Mt. Laurel girl.
Meghan Vizzard, a then-sixth-grade student at Hartford School, came up with the idea for Cozies for Chemo when her teenage cousin, Katie White, was undergoing chemotherapy for ovarian cancer.
More news came out of Hartford School when Debbie Flamini, 55, a long-time resident of Mt. Laurel and secretary for the past 14 years, who was diagnosed with early stage Parkinson’s disease in 2010, readied for the Parkinson’s Unity Walk in New York City.
The school supported Flamini in a volleyball fundraiser in mid-April.
“Being proactive to raise awareness and money for research keeps me hopeful, and inspiring others with Parkinson’s helps me stay positive,” she said.
Over at the Mt. Laurel Police Department, officers received a couple of new helpers during the month.
The Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) units were purchased through grants, now-retired Lt. Dan Howard, of the Mt. Laurel Police Department, said.
“It’s one more tool the police can use to provide an increased level of safety to vehicles and pedestrians throughout the town,” Howard said. “It’s a force multiplier for us.”
On April 16, the budget was adopted by town council and met the January desire of Keenan.
According to Mitchell, “The local purpose tax rate would rise 1.9 cents for every $100 of assessed property value, from less than 54 cents to about 55 cents.”
A home assessed at the township average of $142,100 could expect to pay an extra $27.68 annually for municipal services, she said, for a total property tax payment of around $6,179.
“We only keep $789 of it,” she said, as the rest was allocated to the county, local schools and Lenape Regional School District.
The total budget this year was $35,460.723.17, Mitchell said.
Rounding out the month, international author Alyssa Satin Capucilli made a trip to Fleetwood Elementary School.
Capucilli, whose books are published by HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, encouraged students, separated into three assemblies based on grade level, to use their imaginations during 45 minute-long presentations.
May
As May began, the second annual Kevin Todd Memorial AIDS Walk was held at Lenape High School.
“Kevin and I were really close,” said Lisa O’Neill of her brother Kevin, the walk’s namesake. “Kevin was a very upbeat guy. He was very popular.”
Also in the Lenape District, the annual Armed Services Awards were held in mid-May to honor students, alumni and district employees who have had a part in military service.
At the 2012 awards, a number of current veterans were invited to attend.
Harrington Middle School was active in May.
“Hay Dayz of Hollywood,” a community education performance by the Mt. Laurel Schools’ spring S.T.E.P. Theater was shown.
In late May, Mt. Laurel participated in Click It or Ticket.
“This state grant is an awareness grant intended to improve the compliance with the seatbelt law and since seatbelts have been proven to save lives in a crash the township feels it is an important program,” Mitchell explained in a council meeting.
