Jan. 5 marked the annual Voorhees Township Committee reorganization meeting and the first meeting of 2015.
At the meeting, Mayor Michael Mignogna and Deputy Mayor Harry Platt were both sworn in twice, once due to their winning re-election in November to new, three-year terms on the committee and once for their reappointments to mayor and deputy mayor, respectively.
Upon being sworn in and reappointed as mayor, Mignogna said he wanted to thank his fellow committee members for once again giving him the “honor and privilege” of serving as the mayor of Voorhees, which he called a wonderful community.
Mignogna said he also wanted to congratulate Platt, and with the two of them having run for, and been elected to, committee for the fifth time, he hoped it meant the two of them were doing something right.
Platt said he appreciated the support he and Mignogna still get after so many years, and he didn’t take the job lightly, calling it a part of his life.
“No one knows that more than my family…but I think about them and how I’m doing these things to try and build a better community and build a better world, and I know that they believe in what I do and so do I,” Platt said.
At the meeting, Mignogna also took some time to speak to those in the audience about what he and the committee accomplished in 2014, as well as what they hoped to accomplish in 2015.
Looking back on the last year, Mignogna called it eventful, and spoke in detail about several key areas in the town.
One area he reflected on was the Virtua medical campus, which he called a $600 million development and economic magnet on Route 73, which has brought in additional medical offices, a diner and hotel.
“The ‘Medical Mile,’ as we’ve come to call it, has created hundreds of new jobs and hundreds of thousands of dollars of new tax revenue for our township,” Mignogna said.
Mignogna also commented on the Voorhees Town Center, where the meeting was taking place, and how it was continuing to grow and thrive, including what he called a wonderful retail season at the mall and the success of restaurant row.
He also mentioned the many community events hosted there in 2014, including the farmers market, the carnival, thriller night, the holiday parade and, for the first time, dining under the stars.
“It’s fast becoming the downtown we always imagined it would be,” Mignogna said.
In addition to the success of the Virtua campus and Voorhees Town Center, Mignogna said that in 2014, a total of 87 new businesses opened in Voorhees, leading to 717 new jobs for the community.
“A successful business community and successful business climate is a partnership,” Mignogna said. “I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, it’s a partnership between the township committee, between our Voorhees Business Association, our economic development team and our business retention team.”
Looking forward to 2015, Mignogna said the committee would be working to control municipal spending and do more with less, naming just a few of the township’s upcoming initiatives.
“We’ll continue sensible shared services agreements, and look for more,” Mignogna said. “We’re going to purchase another compress natural gas truck to allow our DPW to operate more efficiently. We’ll continue with our side arm trash collection, and in the first quarter of 2015, we will begin side arm recycling collection.”
As he closed his remarks, Mignogna said he wanted to thank a number of people, mainly township employees.
“I want to thank our township employees for doing such a great job that they do every year,” Mignogna said. “I want to thank our professionals. My dad once told me ‘surround yourself with smart people and you’ll look good.’ I’ve tried to do that.”
