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November 16, 2019 – November 22, 2019
Jobs Creek Bridge Traffic Shift Causes Multiple Problems By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer
Photo By Douglas D. Melegari
Burlington County Freeholder Director Tom Pullion, Burlington County Freeholder Latham Tiver, Burlington County Scott Coffina, Freeholder Daniel J. O’Connell, Detective Lt. Michael Wiltsey, supervisor of the prosecutor’s office’s Crime Scene Unit and Evidence Management Unit, and County Administrator Eve Cullinan cut the crime-scene tape placed across the entranceway to the Forensic Services Center on Nov. 1 to mark its grand opening.
NEW CRIME SCENE Prosecutor, County Officials Hold Ribbon-Cutting for New Forensic Services Center in Pemberton
By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer
PEMBERTON—Burlington County officials “cut the ribbon,” or in this case symbolic yellow crime-scene tape, for a new, 30,000-square-foot Forensic Services Center in Pemberton Township earlier this month that will house the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office’s Crime Scene Unit, High-Tech Crimes Unit and Evidence Management Unit, bringing all three units together under one roof to better share information and resources to help find justice in criminal cases. “Before we can lock up the bad guys, we have to solve crimes with a great facility,” said Freeholder Daniel J. O’Connell, liaison to the prosecutor’s office, during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. County Prosecutor Scott Coffina,
Detective Lt. Michael Wiltsey, supervisor of the Crime Scene Unit and Evidence Management Unit, Freeholder Director Tom Pullion, O’Connell, Freeholder Latham Tiver and County Administrator Eve Cullinan each took giant-sized scissors and cut the crime-scene tape placed across the entranceway to the new facility, simultaneously, just after 11 a.m. on Nov. 1 to mark its official opening. Coffina described the new facility as “cutting-edge” and a “generational project” for the prosecutor’s office. “With the tools that have been given (to the prosecutor’s office), I think we are going to see a tremendous amount of activity,” Pullion said. The opening of the new facility comes at a time in which the prosecutor’s office has dealt with a rise in fatal shootings and
drug-overdose deaths in the county, several of which are believed to be related to an opioid epidemic affecting the country. Coffina, during the grand opening of the new facility, reiterated his commitment to make it a priority to prosecute overdose deaths as a homicide. “We are a busy county,” Coffina said. According to the county prosecutor, the project to establish the new facility was an idea from the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders and “started to take hold” in 2017. T he f reeholder boa rd, in 2018, appropriated funds to retrofit a former county-highway department garage at 624 Pemberton-Browns Mills Road to provide the prosecutor’s office See CRIME/ Page 23
BA SS R I V E R— A New Je r s ey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) project to replace a bridge that carries Route 9 over the Mullica River, which eventually turns into Jobs Creek, has apparently not gotten off to a smooth start. In early October, Commissioner Louis Bourguignon, of the Bass River Township Boa rd of Com m issioners, contended that “ever ybody was calling him and complaining” about temporary traffic lights installed by the NJDOT on both sides of the Jobs Creek Bridge. The traffic lights, installed to regulate an alternating traffic pattern over the bridge due to only one lane of travel available as a result of the construction, were apparently malfunctioning and not changing about every four minutes as they were intended to do. “I talked to Scott (a NJDOT worker) about Jobs Creek Bridge and he said they had a malfunction there,” Bourguignon said. “So, it should be better now, down there, (now that I talked to him). He said something was wrong with a sensor.” Some who attended the October board meeting remarked that the situation had resulted in some motorists disobeying the traffic signals, and due to a curve in the area, those who did so were taking their chances crossing the bridge without knowing whether or not there was oncoming traffic. Tom “Tommy” Wetmore, chief of the New Gretna Volunteer Fire Company, contended at the time that firefighters, responding to fire calls, were being held up at the bridge by having to sit and wait for a green light. “First, they were supposed to give clickers out,” Bourguignon said. “Then, they said they don’t have to, and when you drive the fire tucks up there, the strobe lights are supposed to change the signal. That is what I was told.” Deputy Mayor Nicholas Capriglione called the situation a “hazard.” “The problem is that the passageway seems to be so long that even if you were able to change the lights, the firefighters would still have to wait for a lot of that traffic to come through, and that is going to be a hazard,” Capriglione said. “It is quite a distance, even if the light changes, you still have no idea who is passing through.” Wetmore said that firefighters can’t go through any red light because it is impossible to see who is coming from the other way. See TRAFFIC/ Page 21
INDEX Christmas Countdown....... 14 Community........................ 10 Dental Column................... 13 Health................................ 13 Here's My Card.................. 16 Hobbyist............................ 15
Holiday Events..................S1 Opinion................................ 9 Job Board.......................... 18 Senior Column................... 10 Leo the Lion Challenge..... 13 Student Lounge................... 8 Local News.......................... 3 Veteran’s Day Photo Page.... 6 Marketplace....................... 20 Worship Guide................... 11
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