Pine Barrens Tribune April 6, 2024-April 12, 2024

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

TABERNACLE—Despite the backdrop of palpable anger and frustrations from Tabernacle Township residents, and vocal opposition from six former township mayors, as well as from two sitting committee members (one also a former mayor) and the local GOP chairman, the all-Republican Tabernacle Township Committee, in a narrow 3-2 vote, retained Ricco Construction Corp (which does business as Ricco Demolition) on March 25 to demolish historic Tabernacle Town Hall.

The demolition, which officials now claim is a necessity given the opinions of the local construction official, township engineer, and special project architect that the building is now an “imminent hazard” to the health, safety and welfare of the public, was scheduled to occur about three weeks after the March 25 vote, which was essentially a reaffirmation of a previous, unanticipated Feb. 26, 3-1 committee vote that has provoked sheer Tabernacle Committee Narrowly Decides to Award Contract for Demolition of Historic Town Hall After Construction Official, Engineer and Architect Claim It Is in ‘Imminent Danger’ of Collapsing into County Route 532, Portion of Which is Now Closed for 4 Weeks Until Demo Can Be Completed Vote to Raze Building Has Provoked Sheer Public Outrage, Going Against Wishes of 6 Past Mayors with Current Official, Who

Decision to Raze Tabernacle Town Hall Leads to Unprecedented Public Spats Between Generational Families, Engulfing Both Past and Present Officials and Their Families in Ugly Political Firestorm

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

TABERNACLE—The historic Feb. 26 Tabernacle Township Committee decision to raze Tabernacle Town Hall, and the March 25 vote by the governing body to award a contract for the 19th Century building’s demolition, has brought about a political firestorm that has turned heated in public, and, in some cases, ugly and downright personal on social media.

Its effect has even led to unprecedented public spats between families spanning many generations in Tabernacle Township, even engulfing past and present officials and their families.

“Tonight’s decision is heartbreaking,” wrote Sharon Grovatt, whose family is known to span generations in Tabernacle Township. “For those of us who will drive through what WAS the center of our beloved Tabernacle, every single day of our lives we will be reminded of how incompetent our elected officials are and how they truly don’t care about the people and the locales they supposedly represent. Shame on all of you!”

Grovatt, in a second posting to Facebook, appeared to take a shot at Deputy Mayor Natalie Stone, whose January ask for a report on the condition of Town Hall led to the purported finding

that the shuttered facility is now in danger of collapsing on and leaning toward Medford Lakes-Tabernacle Road, also known as County Route 532.

Stone, in January, had suggested she was open to demolishing the building, even before there was such a finding, claiming it was simply sentimental to some and not historic, and since the supposed finding of imminent danger to public health and safety was announced, has pushed for demolition of the building.

Stone had been a Medford Township resident until she moved to Seneca Reserve, a new development built in Tabernacle Township, about two years ago.

Now a resident of Tabernacle, the Republican ran for Tabernacle committee in 2023, first defeating over 20-year Tabernacle committeewoman Kim Brown in a primary challenge (the latter who did not earn the party line in her last reelection bid), before running unopposed in November with Noble McNaughton, who has over four decades of experience in Tabernacle politics.

Stone, during the Tabernacle committee’s reorganization session, threw cold water on McNaughton’s idea of holding regular workshop meetings, and accepted the deputy

Richard J. Weber, DMD

Dr.

Despite Governor Claiming He Is ‘Committed to Bolstering State Schools,’ His Proposed Budget Slashes Aid to LRHSD by Over 19 Percent, or $4.69M

Superintendent Says District is ‘Utterly Shocked’ by ‘Devastating’ Proposed Aid Cut

That She First Thought Was Mistake, with Local Legislators Denouncing Aid Losses to LRHSD and 139 Other Districts and Proposing, Backing Restorative Aid Bills in Wake

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

SHAMONG—The Lenape Regional High School District (LRHSD), after reeling from six consecutive years of state aid cuts through a state school funding formula known as S2, was anticipating a final cut of only $337,000 in the final year of the seven-year phased-in financial aid blueprint for state districts (at worse-case $350,000 based on “per pupil calculations”), but is now left “utterly shocked” to learn that the LRHSD is instead slated to currently lose $4.69 million in state funding

for the 2024-25 school year. When Democratic Governor Phil Murphy recently unveiled his proposed budget for the year, which contains the allotment figures to districts, Superintendent Dr. Carol Birnbohm, in reading on March 6 what the LRHSD would be allotted for the upcoming school year, said she and her team initially thought the given figure “perhaps was a mistake.” But “disbelief turned into shock and devastation,” she contended,

Pinelands Regional School District Sees Its State Aid Cut by Nearly $2M, Which Superintendent Initially Queried If It Simply Was Miscalculation

All Four of Its Sending School Districts See Aid Losses, with Significant Decrease of 17 Percent Reported for Little Egg and Whopping 60 Percent Cut for Bass River

By D ouglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

LITTLE EGG HARBOR—Another area regional high school district superintendent, upon receiving state aid allotment figures for the 2024-25 school year from the New Jersey Department of Education last month, as part of Democratic Governor Phil Murphy’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget, has gone on the record to say that, at first, they thought the allotment figure provided for their district was simply a miscalculation.

The report of Dr. Melissa McCooley, superintendent of schools for the Pinelands Regional School District (PRSD), in similar fashion to that of Lenape Regional High School District Superintendent Carol Birnbohm last month, underscores just how caughtoff guard some superintendents were in learning of the level of funding cuts the state was making for the upcoming school year, with the department and governor’s office yet to explain how such an apparent communication breakdown happened (see separate story).

The Pinelands Regional School District (PRSD), as PRSD Business Administrator Amanda Miller put it during a March 18 PRSD Board of Education meeting, has sustained a “huge hit” with the state cutting its aid over last year by “close to $2 million,” or $1,980,813, which reflects a decrease of 16.58 percent.

According to PRSD officials, the unexpected level of cut sent them scrambling to come up with a plan in just a few weeks’ time. Miller said of the efforts that officials “did work tirelessly, trying to figure out a budget best for the district.”

“We, unfortunately, got a $2 million in state funding cut from us recently, which is a huge impact on our $40 million budget,” McCooley reported

was made in any type of error. Perhaps the calculation was off.”

Miller said officials are still optimistic that the letter to the commissioner “will help us a little bit.” The board had to adopt a preliminary budget, for review by the executive county superintendent, during its March session to meet a staterequired deadline, but the board has pushed back its April session in hopes that it will hear about a change in its favor, Miller explained.

Otherwise, the board will be required to adopt the budget by the end of April, as is, assuming the executive county superintendent OKs the preliminary one.

Miller said PRSD officials worked to “develop a budget that incorporates these cuts with as least impact to students and staff as possible.”

She maintained that with the plan she and the PRSD administrative team came up with, if there are any changes in funding allotment made by the state, the situation is “not going to get any worse” but rather “just would get a little better” assuming there is any funding increase.

According to McCooley, following the session, “fortunately, because of careful planning over the years, we are able to propose a budget with limited cuts to any programs or staff.”

(The district has also had some years with funding increases, unlike the LRHSD.)

Miller was reluctant to get into the normal details of the budget and local tax impacts just yet, given the fluid situation, but McCooley believes PRSD will fair this unexpected development “OK” because of its “careful planning.”

But there is one thing that McCooley pointed out to this newspaper. One of the sending districts to Pinelands Regional, the Little Egg Harbor School District, has learned its decrease in state aid over last year is $1,562,692, or what amounts to a decrease of 17.69

Photo Provided By LRHSD Cherokee High School 12th Grader Samuel Levin, LRHSD Superintendent of Schools Dr. Carol Birnbohm, and Cherokee High School 12th Grader Daniel Leonard attend a recent state Senate Budget and Appropriations Budget Hearing on March 19.

Citing Legal Precedents, Bass River Planners Approve Use Variance

Allowing Former Grade School to Be Turned into Downsized Yeshiva

Plan to Convert Classrooms into Dorms for 35 Talmudic Students without Cars

Must Now Meet County Board of Health, Pinelands Commission Requirements

BASS RIVER—The former Bass River Township Elementary School, located at 3 North Maple Ave. in the heart of the village of New Gretna, is a substantial step closer to being converted into a yeshiva, an Orthodox Jewish college or seminary, that would offer training to rabbinical students along with dormitory facilities for nearly three dozen of them as a result of the Bass River Township Planning Board having given conditional approval at its March 20 meeting to a site plan waiver and use variance for the century-old building.

The vote of 6-0-1 (with five affirmatives needed to grant the variance under the Municipal Land Use Law) was taken at the conclusion of yet another public meeting on the subject that had to be moved to the local firehouse to make room for a sizeable number of local residents, many of whom have adamantly objected to the vacant building’s becoming a yeshiva.

However, the board’s decision to contravene community sentiment on the subject, according to its attorney, Christopher J. Norman, was one based strictly on its legal obligation to follow existing case law and judicial precedents governing religious schools.

Much of the session was devoted to a fast-paced presentation by professional planning and legal consultants whom the property’s owner, Maple River LLC, an entity founded by Lakewoodbased developer Eli Blech, had engaged to forge ahead with the controversyplagued proposal, now significantly scaled down to one that would provide accommodations for a maximum of 35 boarding students as well as seven more who would be brought in daily by van, along with two resident rabbis and a caretaker.

Under the plan approved by the board, those students living at the yeshiva would be housed in former classrooms equipped with three to five

beds each. Other conditions include a prohibition on students enrolled there having cars – one of the most critical mitigating factors the board had to take into consideration from a landuse perspective, Norman noted, since it will prevent the facility, which has 30 parking spaces, from causing any congestion on nearby streets and roads.

The planners’ approval overcame a major obstacle to Blech’s year-long effort to turn the now empty school building into one offering an intensive regimen of instruction in the tenets of a religious tradition with which this rural Pinelands community has had nothing in the way of theological or institutional association. But he must still overcome any potential problems with such a conversion that might be raised by either the Burlington County Board of Health, which will evaluate whether the existing septic system meets county standards, or the Pinelands Commission.

“They’ll have to demonstrate that they have both county and Pinelands approval before they can get a Certificate of Occupancy (CO),” Norman told the Pine Barrens Tribune in a phone interview following the vote. “It is not like we write them a blank check.”

The proposal agreed to by the planning board is actually somewhat smaller in scope than one agreed to by Blech during a Bass River Board of Commissioners meeting last September at which he offered to limit the number of students to no more than 50 after failing to get the governing body to rezone the immediate neighborhood to accommodate commercial enterprises, an idea that encountered considerable resistance from residents.

Also strongly opposed by townspeople was the idea of converting the structure’s former classrooms into dormitories, which drew an overflow crowd to a planning board meeting in July, even though the matter had been removed from the board’s agenda at the applicant’s request.

Southampton Mayor Says Township Will ‘Take No Action’ to Enforce

LeisureTowne Edict Closing Old Forge Lake to Neighboring Residents

Senior Community’s Lawyer Says Hampton Lakes Homeowners Will Be ‘Trespassing’

If They Go on Using Facility, in Sharp Contrast to What He Told Them Four Years Ago

B y B ill B onvie

Staff Writer

SOUTHAMPTON—The Township of Southampton has no intention of involving itself in the issue of whether or not residents of the Hampton Lakes neighborhood whose properties abut Old Forge Lake, which belongs to the LeisureTowne Homeowners Association, have a right to use that body of water for recreational purposes, according to Mayor Michael Mikulski.

Given that “the township doesn’t own the lake, the township is going to take no action to enforce rules that are not township rules,” Mikulski declared in response to an inquiry from a Hampton Lakes homeowner at the March 19 meeting of the township committee.

The matter is one that first came up last December when several Hampton Lakes residents with docks on Old Forge Lake, the largest of several manmade lakes owned by the LeisureTowne retirement community, were ordered to immediately dismantle those structures in a certified letter from Gregg Shivers, an attorney representing the senior living community’s Board of Trustees. That letter also ordered them to stay off the lake entirely or they would be regarded as trespassers.

Shivers, while maintaining he was “personally sorry for this development,” attributed it to “insurance considerations,” which he claimed “require that the lake be kept private.” The attorney also maintained that he and the LeisureTowne board had “explored every other option” before ordering the affected residents to stay out of and off the water, but that insurers have become much stricter in such matters, limiting coverage and raising premiums for homeowners associations and that LeisureTowne “was the latest victim of this trend.”

Just how much times have changed in this regard is reflected in an earlier letter emailed by Shivers in August 2020 to Hampton Lakes residents who had paid an LLC that he represented $350 per

household to ensure that the properties they owned extended all the way to the water’s edge.

That letter, also written on the stationery of Hill Wallack, LLP, the legal firm with whose Cherry Hill office Shivers is associated and which refers to a “property line dispute,” began with the greeting, “Dear Hampton Lakes Friends,” and went on to assure each of the recipients that their deed, which was enclosed, had ”finally been filed with the Burlington County Clerk,” and that an accompanying cover sheet would tell them the book and page where it was recorded.

Then “as a reminder to those of you who have a dock,” it noted, “it is your obligation to provide Leisure town (sic) with proof each year that you have homeowner insurance coverage that includes the dock.” “For your own protection, you should make sure that your insurance company is on notice that you have a dock connected to your property,” the correspondence continued. “That way, if someone is hurt on your dock, you do not risk having your insurance company disclaim coverage (which insurance companies love to do.)”

The letter ends by thanking the recipients “for all your cooperation and patience through this project” and urges them to “Please stay safe.”

When the wording of that letter, which seems to indicate there was no issue with the lake being used at that time by adjacent property owners, was cited to Shivers by a Pine Barrens Tribune reporter in an April 3 phone call, he responded that it simply showed how the Leisuretowne Association had “tried to be a good neighbor.”

Having proof of such coverage, he said, was something “we felt would protect both sides.” But that subsequently proved not to be the case, he maintained, due to “changes in the insurance environment,” with “insurance professionals” having

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outcry in the community since it occurred.

One former mayor, Joseph Barton, came forward during the March 25 session to claim that the Junior Order of United American Mechanics (JOAUM) No. 49 has received word since the Feb. 26 committee session from a would-be donor “willing to commit” an anonymous donation of $1.5 million “to save” the 19th Century building, built in 1847, that had been gifted in 1960 by the JOAUM to the township.

“The other day, at a Historical Society meeting, Tom Gerber, a member of JOAUM, informed us that there is a member of Junior Mechanics willing to commit $1.5 million to save that building,” said Barton to loud applause and cheers. “That person is anonymous and will remain anonymous. … He is a righteous man, has the funds, and is willing to put them in a reserve. He only asked the Junior Order that he have a seat at the table, and that you develop a subcommittee, to build a new foundation to restore it.”

But when that pronouncement was made by Barton, while the room burst into applause and cheers, the three members of the committee who have now voted twice to move ahead with the demolition, Mayor Mark Hartman, Deputy Mayor Natalie Stone, and Committeeman Samuel “Sammy” Moore, were notably silent and motionless – two of which had their hands placed on their faces/chins during the announcement.

It was something that resident Ian McDowel also noticed.

“Multiple township committee members thanked and applauded a donation from Deputy Mayor Stones’ husband to pay for electric to be run for a new scoreboard at Patty Bowker ball fields,” he later wrote in a Facebook comment. “This same committee had no positive reaction at all when told there is a man willing to donate $1.5 million for our Town Hall.”

The majority pushing for the demolition ultimately didn’t move to accept the donation for Town Hall, with Moore and Stone questioning whether the committee is in a position to accept a “gift,” though one woman shouted that the township could seek special permission from the state under such circumstances.

Hartman, Stone and Moore (a former mayor) also turned down a proposal by Committeeman Noble McNaughton (also a former mayor of the town), with the backing of Committeeman William Sprague, Jr., to obtain a second opinion from a structural engineer on whether the Town Hall could be salvaged, as well as to whether it could be somehow stabilized and braced to prevent any imminent collapse.

It was acknowledged by Township Engineer Tom Leisse at one point during the March 25 session that there is a form of structural engineering that specializes in buildings in danger of collapse and stabilization (something that the township has not pursued).

McNaughton and Sprague, upon learning that, then sought to retain that type of a structural engineer for a second opinion, also at the encouragement of former mayor Steve Lee IV, who seized on Leisse’s admission. But Leisse then began insisting that the committee is “not going to find” one to come out to the township within

three weeks, with he and Construction Official Tom Boyd claiming that the building is in such danger of collapse, they wouldn’t risk their professional licenses in allowing the committee to wait longer than that to find one.

Township Solicitor William Burns, however, counseled the governing body to engage in a “compromise,” which would have entailed having its present structural engineering and architectural firm, Regan Young England Butera, evaluate the Town Hall to see if it can be stabilized (the engineer associated with that firm was called during the session by the firm’s architect, Scott England, and was said by England to have been willing to come up from a vacation in Florida to do a study), all while the demolition preps are undertaken.

But that too was something that Hartman, Stone and Moore also did not pursue, with Stone expressing concern that the township could end up owing money to the demolition contractor if it pulls out of the contract (enacted on March 25) and because of concern the building could collapse into Medford Lakes-Tabernacle Road, as Boyd and England, a principal at Regan Young England Butera, whose services were retained by the municipality to help perform an initial 2021 study of Town Hall, both suggested at the March 25 session

Boyd contended that an “actual crease” and “deflection” has now been found in a steel beam in the basement of Town Hall, with England contending that while he was recently viewing the building from Nixon’s General Store, it is now tilting left towards Medford Lakes-Tabernacle Road.

Boyd, at one point, in fact, contended that he would be obligated to have Burns go to court and seek an order to have the building demolished should the governing body decide not to raze the building on March 25, given it is an “imminent hazard” or “imminent danger.”

But the decision to not pursue the donation, and especially to not pursue the second opinion to try to salvage the historic building, has caused a number of residents to both lash out at and sour on Hartman, Stone and Moore, with even backlash from some of those in Republican and generational family circles who are usually either silent on major political issues or ardent supporters when key issues enter the fray (see separate story).

And, at least to the untrained eye, Town Hall, now surrounded by construction fencing and danger signs, doesn’t easily appear to be exhibiting any noticeable lean towards the road, with the public taking to social media to mock the claim, either making light that signage around the site has fallen down before the building, or posing in such a way with the building as a backdrop to try to catch a building that is said to be falling into the road (even though it doesn’t appear to be on an angle or leaning towards them in the photos).

The concern that the building could fall into the road, however, has prompted the “emergency closure” of Medford Lakes-Tabernacle Road, between the entranceway of Holy Eucharist Roman Catholic Church and Carranza Road, for four weeks, with the township, in a press release, writing, in part, “Tabernacle Township’s Construction Official and

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mayor post, viewed as a slap in the face to the experienced politician, who didn’t support Stone’s nomination.

The two have since disagreed on almost every major issue, including the fate of Town Hall. McNaughton, on March 25, called the vote to raze the building an “absolute crime.”

“I’m so very sorry to hear about the demolition of our Town Hall,” wrote Grovatt in the second posting. “I am a relatively new resident of Tabernacle as my family moved here around 1905, which, as I understand it, is shortly after it became a township. My family moved here from deeper in what is now known as the ‘Pine Barrens’ after having lived there for generations. My uncles attended the one-room schoolhouse now located on Carranza Road, and my mother and her sisters were some of the first to attend the beautiful four-room school which, after being added to, was Tabernacle’s only school until the ‘new’ school was built between 1966 and 1968. Those rooms are now the front part of Friends of Cyrus.

“At last count, my family has been here for at least six generations. I understand that doesn’t count for much in today’s society, but in my world, please understand that it means more than you will ever know.

“As a very small child, I remember being filmed in a European movie as an extra. One of the pivotal scenes was filmed upstairs in the ‘Town Hall,’ long before it was relinquished to Tabernacle by Junior Mechanics. I remember haybales in a circle in the middle of the room and a dance taking place around it. I so wish I could find a copy of that film today.”

Grovatt has specifically taken aim at Committeeman Samuel “Sammy” Moore, who has, so far, gone along with Stone and current Mayor Mark Hartman, in moving to demolish the building (Hartman, according to a report, moved to Tabernacle about five years ago, with tax records showing he purchased his property back in 2018).

Moore is also part of an agriculture family whose roots span some seven generations in town. More recently, his farm was featured in a scene in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Knock at the Cabin.”

In citing her memory of being filmed as an extra for the European movie at Town Hall, Grovatt wrote, “It may not be

“Knock at the Cabin,” but it was every bit as important to those few of us who lived in Tabernacle 60 plus years ago as the old school and Tabernacle itself was to us.”

“You can tear down buildings and erect monuments to yourselves, but trust me, you will NEVER embody the true spirit of Tabernacle,” she declared. “We will go on in spite of you.”

The Tabernacle Historical Society, in its own Facebook posting following the March 25 decision, wrote, “Tonight, the Tabernacle Township Committee voted 3-2 to demolish our Historic Town Hall. Despite the fact that over 75 people came out in support of saving the building, despite the fact that an offer of a $1.5 Million dollar donation was made toward saving it, despite the fact that an engineer who specializes in buildings of this age was contacted during the meeting and was willing to inspect the building and report back a second opinion, three members voted to proceed with the demolition, which is scheduled to be done in three weeks.

“Thank you to all of those who have supported our efforts especially committee members Noble McNaughton and Bill Sprague, who fought so hard on our behalf. It is a shame that this icon will be lost to future generations.”

Grovatt, following that post, took direct aim at Moore in the ensuing thread.

“They need to be voted out ASAP and investigated financially,” she wrote. “Sammy Moore, your mom would be ashamed of you!”

That led to a testy exchange for all to see between Grovatt and Penny Moore, the spouse of Committeeman Moore.

“Actually, his mom would be proud because he stands for Tabernacle,” Penny Moore shot back.

But Grovatt retorted, “Actually not.”

“Neva would not have been happy with this,” she continued. “Our families go back way too many generations in Tabernacle to be willing to abandon it now.”

Grovatt continued that “Neva would NEVER have turned her back on Tabernacle, nor would have your husband’s grandparents.”

And when Penny Moore pointed out that her family spans seven generations, Grovatt shot back, “If only your husband’s family honored those generations and their history instead of destroying them.”

Another person claiming to be a sister of Committeeman Moore responded, “You didn’t know my mom except to have

conversations with her,” asserting, “Don’t presume you know what she would say or believe in.”

“She always supported her kids, in addition to Tabernacle,” the apparent sister wrote. “My brother believes he is doing the right thing. Period. You disagree, then go ahead and disagree.”

Local Rachel Batt, however, weighed in too, by asking, “How is (Committeeman Moore) standing for Tabernacle when advocating for the demolition of a historic landmark?”

“How is anyone on the board for the township with the intent to destroy the landmark of the center of town?” Blatt continued. “If there is a desire for a new building, that is an entirely different conversation. But don’t do it at taxpayers’ expense when the building belongs to Junior Mechanics anyway.”

Local transparency advocate and resident Fran Brooks had warned Moore just prior to the committee’s decision to award the demolition contract, “If you vote to demolish this building, you and your family will be the most hated people in Tabernacle, and I say this with great sadness.”

“You will be tarred for the rest of your life,” she continued.

Brooks called what she viewed as the “tragedy of the destruction of historic Town Hall” a “grotesque example of the failure of Tabernacle elected officials, staff and professionals.”

“It is a story about the quality of our current committeepersons – Hartman, Stone, and Moore, and Town Hall employees,” she continued, noting it entails their purported inability “to make informed decisions and take proper action.”

“We didn’t have to be at this current inflection point if current committee members and staff spent more time studying and regularly addressing township issues and less time playing politics!” Fran Brooks declared.

Brooks also took aim at Boyd, contending he has “known for years Town Hall needed work.”

“It could not have been plainer in the (2021) report,” Brooks declared. “But what has Mr. Boyd been doing? He never sent an email to the committee about the building deterioration – I have all the email logs. He never reported on the inspections, if he did any. He never updated the committee. He never gave them a deadline for action until Feb. 26, 2024. What has he done?

Unfortunately, he spent it expanding his resume and working other towns. Tabernacle be damned!

“It was not until the 11th hour he attended a township meeting to say the building is past the point of saving and must come down … his work is a gross failure of government. His actions also beg the question where was township oversight? Where was the township administrator? She is in Woodland! Just picking up her $132,000 Tabernacle salary.”

(Brown provides administrative and clerk services to Tabernacle as a Woodland Township employee through a shared services agreement.)

Katherine O'Connell Crain, in the wake of the decision, called the demolition vote a “disgraceful decision without even hiring a structural engineer.” (See separate story.)

“I don’t understand what it would hurt to get that opinion and they had a beneficiary that was willing to donate $1.5 million towards the building,” she added. “This decision from these township officials is unacceptable.”

Ranae Parker recounted that her dad was born and raised in Tabernacle and went to the one-room schoolhouse.

“A big thank you to Mr. McNaughton and Mr. Sprague as they were the only two who seemed to understand the people,” she wrote. “I will remember this at the next election.”

Shawn Vena, a retired township fire chief and longtime resident of Tabernacle whose service to the town dates back to 1983, wrote an email to the entire township committee on March 31, which he later shared on social media and with this newspaper, declaring he is “so disheartened and upset” with the governing body.

“Most of you do not know the meaning of the Town Hall building to many of the longtime residents,” he asserted. “When I had a lousy shift working in Camden or Mount Laurel, I would take the long way home and make sure I would pass through the center of town to see the building you are allowing to be demolished.

“Seeing that building would remind me of how unique our town is and how quiet this place is compared to what I had to deal with and felt with the previous shift, whether it was after I handled a burned infant from a Camden firefighter or had a young child die in my arms from a crossfire incident or doing CPR to an older adult, which would remind me of

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in learning it actually wasn’t one.

As Birnbohm pointed out during a March 30 LRHSD Board of Education meeting, the governor’s “proposed budget” is just that – and it needs the approval of both the state Assembly and Senate, and therefore, since early March, the district has called on parents and teachers, among others, to advocate to their state representatives for the restoration of the funding.

Otherwise, as she put it, the district will have to try and close what has become a “huge canyon, and not even a hole anymore” with “deeper cuts” on the table “that will inevitably impact programs and staffing.”

So far, momentum seems to be building in the district’s favor for restorative aid from the needed parties – though there is still much work to do, and it is not a guarantee.

New local 8th District Democratic Assemblywoman Andrea Katz, the Pine Barrens Tribune has learned, has co-sponsored a bill, in response to the funding crisis of the LRHSD and some 139 others in a similar predicament across the state, A-4003, that would establish a seven-member school funding formula evaluation task force.

Katz has also signed on as a prime sponsor of another bill, A-4160, she confirmed to this newspaper in an interview on March 29, which has a state Senate companion, S-3072, to provide additional state school aid to affected districts, appropriating $105,886,559.

New Republican 8th District Senator Latham Tiver plans to also join as a cosponsor of S-3072. He has also already co-sponsored another piece of legislation introduced by fellow Burlington County Senator Troy Singleton, a Democrat representing the 7th Legislative District, S-3058, which would “establish an inflationary state school aid growth limit” and “permit certain school districts to apply for necessary stabilization aid.”

The question now, is, will A-4160/S-3072 and/or S-3058 pass both chambers of the Legislature, and be enacted by the governor, before school districts have to certify their budgets, which is typically a requirement before the end of April?

Senator Vin Gopal, a Democratic senator representing Monmouth County, is one of the primary sponsors of S-3072, and similar efforts last year by him to reverse some of the cutting for the 202324 school year ended up having success.

It is now a race against the clock for LRHSD, which has undertaken its “advocacy” efforts, according to Birnbohm, in “really trying to get the attention of our politicians in advocating for our schools.”

“We have one month to make our voices heard before I have to stand before this board again and give another presentation of our budget and talk about the numerous multiple cuts that we have made in the past, and the cuts we have to make this year and the programs that we had to sacrifice and the devastation that happens not only to our staff, but to our kids,” said LRHSD Board of Education member David Stow, who chairs the board’s Finance Committee. “I am a graduate of this school district. My kids are graduates of this school district. My girls are teachers.

They are going through the same thing that every teacher on our staff is going through right now – will I have a job in May? And it is not right. There is only one way to turn it around. Let your voice be heard. Go home and take that message to everybody. Onemonth folks – one month folks.”

According to Birnbohm in recent testimony before the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Budget Committee in a hearing held on March 19, which she played for the audience gathered at the March 30 LRHSD school board session to hear, the cut of $4.69 million in state aid to the LRHSD reflects “20 percent of our state aid having been obliterated overnight.”

She declared it has left the regional high school district “facing a hole in the millions.”

“We are trying to preserve our students’ positive high school experiences,” she testified. “And now we are left with no other option but to eliminate the dedicated and hardworking educators, and many student and academic extracurricular activities.”

The superintendent noted that each year “our Local Fair Share, relative property wealth, is going up, which means more aid has to go to relatively less affluent districts, which we understand,” but “what we don’t understand – what no one can answer for us – is what gives one to take away funding from any school district when school districts don’t have access to their community’s relative community wealth.”

Birnbohm pointed out that since 2010, the tax levy has been capped by the state at two percent, and when that cap was enacted by former Republican Governor Chris Christie, “it came with a promise of no reductions in state aid.”

“But that changed with S-2,” she further pointed out. “So, the year-afteryear of state aid reductions, coupled with the inability to have access to the community’s Local Fair Share, and other uncontrollable factors like decreased enrollment and increased healthcare, increased transportation and energy costs, and everything else going up, has made us a budget hole in the millions.”

“We need your help now, and we need restorative funding now. Our timeline is at odds with your timeline.”

The superintendent explained that the regional school district can’t wait until July 1 (it is a requirement that the Legislature decide the Fiscal Year 2025 budget by that date).

If the district must carry on with a $4.69 million funding reduction, “we are going to have to hand out a multitude of pink slips this spring,” Birnbohm warned and the “last thing we want to do is upset thousands and thousands of students” by having them “find out their favorite teacher, coach, academic program or extracurricular club or activity is going away.”

The two-percent tax levy, she noted, “doesn’t even cover operational changes from one year to the next,” she added.

Kara Huber, who has taken the reigns during the latter years of the funding cut applications as LRHSD school business administrator from her predecessors, nowformer longtime business administrators Jim Hager and Constance Stewart, respectively, also testified on March 19 that S-2 was only supposed to cut a total of $6.9 million from the regional school district.

“We were, unfortunately, hit with a cut of obviously $4.69 million,” she told See

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Engineer have found that Tabernacle Town Hall is an unsafe structure in imminent danger of collapse, likely toward Medford Lakes Road” and “The Burlington County Engineering Department approved the emergency closure of the road to protect public safety in the event of a collapse of the Town Hall.”

The possibility that Town Hall could fall into the road was cited as a reason as to why the committee could not wait for an analysis of a specialized structural engineer, so it is now unclear whether officials could still pursue that route now that the road is closed (David Levinsky, a spokesman for the county, when asked if the county engineer would grant an additional extension of time for the road closure in order to allow for any efforts to preserve a historic building, responded, “The County authorized Tabernacle to close the road at the municipality’s request and the township will decide when it is appropriate to reopen it.”).

The closure of the road itself has generated a flurry of backlash, including from local business owners. Many residents have also called the need to close the road “insane” and “ridiculous,” pointing to other structures in far worse condition and insisting it just amounts to political optics.

And so begins the latest chapter of what started as a plan last year to relocate Town Hall away from the road, rehabilitate it and create a Village Greene, to Stone in January inquiring about the building’s condition and expressing an openness to having it demoed due to potential costs and it being simply sentimental to some and not historic, to what then transitioned into supposed findings that the building’s condition has worsened, to it now becoming an “imminent hazard” with three other possibilities for salvaging Town Hall outlined by Leisse, just in late February, now being suggested as no longer viable ones.

Responding to the Surprise Demolition Vote

On the night of Feb. 26, when Boyd announced that Town Hall has “deteriorated” further since it was vacated in February 2022, and gave a presentation on its condition, followed by the surprise,

unscheduled 3-1 vote spurred by Stone to demo the building, the most experienced committeeman (and one who previously expressed dismay for Stone having even mentioned in January that demolition would be a viable option) was notably absent.

“I want to apologize for not being at the last meeting,” McNaughton told a firehouse packed with locals, most of whom came out bitterly opposed to the “destruction” of Town Hall. “I was sick, and there was nothing on the agenda about destroying Town Hall. If I knew that was on the agenda, I would have been here, even if I was on my death bed, because I think it is an absolute crime this happened.”

(McNaughton has over 40 years of combined experience in township government, holding various positions over the years.)

McNaughton then revealed that the committee had gotten a “report” on Feb. 15 detailing that the Town Hall had deteriorated further from when it had been last evaluated.

“As soon as we got that report, dated 2-15, this committee should have automatically scheduled an emergency open forum meeting so we can have a discussion like this,” McNaughton insisted. “That never happened with this committee. If I had it my way, I would have it that way all the time.”

McNaughton, whose 2023 running mate was Stone, also blasted Hartman, Stone and Moore for deciding against his earlier proposal for the governing body to hold workshop meetings, ones typically designed to feature more in-depth public discussion about such issues.

McNaughton contended that “after I found out about what happened,” with the surprise Feb. 26 vote to demolish the building, he “contacted” both Hartman and Stone to learn why an “actual cost” for some of the options presented by Leisse in February weren’t first being pursued.

“Neither one chose to do it,” McNaughton contended.

Hartman, on Feb. 26, read from a report prepared by Leisse, of Pennoni Associates, highlighting the four potential options. Leisse, in that report, said that Option One, to “Demolish and Remove” Town Hall, would cost the township somewhere between $200,000 to $260,000.

The second option identified by Leisse was to make the “Building Safe, But Unusable,” for an estimated $997,500 to $1,032,000.

Meanwhile, a “Complete Renovation,” or Option Three, according to Leisse,

would cost an estimated $2,424,000 to $2,590,000. As pointed out by Leisse, any renovation, however, would “require the completion of Option Two to make the building structure safe,” and Option Three “would include moving the building within the same site to a new location.”

A fourth option, not given any title by the engineer, was simply explained as one that is an “alternative to repurposing the existing Town Hall building.” But that final option, Leisse noted, is based on the completion of Option One, and would cost an estimated $1,793,000 to $1,910,000.

Having obtained “actual costs,” McNaughton maintained, would allow the governing body to “know exactly what it would cost to demolish” Town Hall and not have the governing body simply go off “inflated engineer prices on what it would cost to stabilize” Town Hall.

(As a resident pointed out prior to McNaughton’s remarks, the resolution awarding a contract for the demolition indicates the razing is being undertaken for only just over $53,000, well under Leisse’s estimate of $200,000 to $260,000 contained in the February report.)

McNaughton then made a motion to rescind the committee’s action of Feb. 26 to demolish the Town Hall.

‘Immediate Action’ or ‘Immediate Destruction’?

Before there could be a vote on McNaughton’s rescindment motion, there was a lengthy, tense discussion on it after Moore declared, “I want to hear from our professionals before we do that.”

Leisse revealed, in response to Moore, that on March 13 he had held a prebid meeting with three companies that responded to a township advertisement seeking proposals for the demolition of the Town Hall.

On that day, Leisse contended, he observed “further deterioration of the interior foundation” in comparison to his observations from prior inspections he conducted when he first became the township engineer, as well as “significant damage” to the “wood truffle members,” with also “additional roof damage, which is contributing to moisture getting into the building.”

“I took pictures in support of Mr. Boyd deeming the building unsafe,” declared Leisse, who had kept silent during the prior Feb. 26 session. “In my professional

opinion, I have deemed the building in immediate danger to public health and safety, and it can’t be occupied.”

And therefore, Leisse had concluded “immediate action” was necessary – with McNaughton, in response, pointing to a difference between his recommendation and the intentions of Hartman, Stone and Moore: “‘immediate action’ and not “immediate destruction.’”

Leisse responded, “Yes.”

But when McNaughton began questioning the feasibility of a company coming in to shore up the building, it received pushback from Leisse, asking, in part, “Where are you going to go?”

McNaughton, who appeared to draw the ire of Leisse, shot back there is “room to move it” and pointed to a “house on Route 206 that had the same problems” that ended up being lifted off its foundation and “in the air for five to six months before they did the foundation.”

“Can anything be done?” asked McNaughton, causing Leisse to respond, “In accordance with Mr. Boyd’s unsafe condition, I don’t believe you have the time to put this out for design, take bids, put it under contract, and then do the work.”

McNaughton said “work” wouldn’t be the initial aim, but rather “just to jack the building up and make it secure while all the bidding is going on.”

“What is the procedure for jacking the building up?” said Leisse, in maintaining what appeared to be a very defensive posture.

The township engineer also cast doubt that the township could find someone willing to “accept the liability.” It led McNaughton to retort, “Unless we try to get that person, we don’t know that!”

“Why can’t we try to get that person and put it out to bid?” McNaughton asked. “You got people here within two weeks to tear it down! I am sure we can get them out here pretty quickly to move it.”

Leisse, however, predicted it would take “at least two months” for a structural engineer to come out “to do that.”

McNaughton, however, pointed to the second option identified by Leisse in February to make the “Building Safe, But Unusable,” for the estimated $997,500 to $1,032,000. Upon doing that, Leisse contended that it was the “estimate based on the condition observed” at the time and “if you read the conditions at the end of the report, we are anticipating unforeseen things.”

“My question is – there were four

See TURMOIL/ Page 11

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my mother or father. Or, I would, after a foul call with this town's squad or fire company late at night, drive around, park in front of the building, and sit.

“(I would be) thinking this place is peaceful, and looking at a building that has seen a lot of bad times and significant storms. But it is still standing strong. So, this building has a special place in my heart. Every time I would walk into the building and hear those familiar sounds, only that floor would make and fill my ears. I sometimes think of how many others before me have listened to those same sounds.”

Vena, in apparently addressing Stone and Hartman, asked, “Why would this town rely on two of you that haven't lived in town more than five years?”

“You have not developed a relationship with this town or our beloved building,” he charged of Hartman and Stone.

Vena, in further excoriating Hartman and Stone, declared, “I have been in this town way longer than you two put together!”

The longtime resident recalled “walking from the old middle school to the elementary school each day for lunch and seeing the town’s symbol standing proud,” before snapping, “Mr. Hartman and Mrs. Stone do not have those memories or connection to that building.”

“They only see dollar signs,” he charged. “They also see a larger township complex since the old Squad building and Old Town Hall will not be available. Who knows? Perhaps you both are thinking that!”

“SHAME ON ALL OF YOU!!!!!” declared Vena in all caps. “I wouldn’t want my name attached to the destruction history of the Old Town Hall built in 1874 – a building that lasted 150 years, but could last past two people who lived in town less than five years.”

Other remarks of the public on social media have included “corruption at its finest happening here,” “this matter

needs to be investigated,” “they had the meetings about it just so we could put our opinions out therethey never have our backs,” “they obviously don't speak for the majority of the town,” “we must vote these people out – a mayor with no spine and a deputy mayor who thinks this is mini Medford… both gotta go,” “one of them surprises me being his family has been in Tabernacle for many generations,” and “this town council has an obvious agenda – it’s beyond sad.”

Jack McGinnis, a former township committeeman and mayor, in another social media post written on the Tabernacle Historical Society Facebook page following the decision, wrote, “Anyone with any real estate knowledge would not teardown Town Hall.”

“Although a majority of the township committee doesn’t realize it, they are about to cost the township a potential long-term revenue stream,” McGinnis continued. “Just like the Old School, Town Hall can be repurposed and rented or sold. The “deed restriction” on the property can be addressed, the township with assistance from other government agencies could obtain Pinelands approvals for a new use … you simply need the knowledge and WILLPOWER to do it.”

“The thousands of square feet of office/ meeting/public space at such a high visibility corner location could never be built once torn down,” McGinnis pointed out given the Pinelands Commission regulations. “The building and property has a non-conforming pre-existing use that once abandoned can’t be transferred to another entity. There is Town Halls’ true value.”

It was a point prior to the committee’s decision that local GOP Chairman Mark LeMire had tried to convey to the allRepublican governing body.

“It may be an economic decision you made, it may be a safety decision you made, or a combination thereof, but it is very, very important you realize,

as evidenced by this crowd, this is not trivial,” he warned. “Decades from now, when generations of this town are realizing where the center is, it will be an empty parking lot. An empty parking lot is certainly not going to define our character.”

The McGinnis family also has longtime roots in Tabernacle (though after Nixon’s General Store was sold by Jack, and his wife, Nancy, the family has largely relocated out of town).

Jack McGinnis also had strong words for Committeeman Moore.

“Samuel Moore III: you resisted and stonewalled addressing the old Squad building that the taxpayers were spending tens of thousands of dollars to pay utilities for and maintain, yet you rush to destroy

Town Hall,” wrote McGinnis in tagging the committeeman. “Why? If this building in its current condition was on your father’s cranberry farm, he wouldn't tear it down EXACTLY for the reasons stated above. Any existing building in the Pine Barrens has value and YOU NEVER TEAR THEM DOWN. I never thought there’d be a day when the committee would vote to destroy such an important landmark. Maybe not to others, but to the majority of Tabernacle residents, it is a landmark.”

Jack McGinnis, after slamming Committeeman Moore, than made a personal plea to him.

“Sam, I beg you, reconsider your vote,” McGinnis wrote. “You, single-

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

Signs warning of danger appear on the fencing now surrounding Town Hall.

BUDGET

(Continued from Page 7)

the legislators attending the hearing of what the governor and the New Jersey Department of Education has proposed in the state fiscal-year budget. “So, this was obviously earthshattering for us. We were not expecting it. We had planned for each and every year with our projected cuts.”

Sam Levin, one of two Marltonbased Cherokee High School students accompanying Birmbohm and Huber to the hearing (the other being Daniel Leonard) and making the point that the funding formula “needs updating,” pointed out the formula after next year will be “older than all the students in high school” and compared the situation to the Jenga tower-building game with three columns to it, and in doing so, maintained there are also “three pillars” to the high school, “staff, students and programs,” and “as we are trying to stack the tower higher,” the “state is pulling away pieces out from under us.”

“As you know, if you have played the game before, if you start pulling pieces from the tower, it starts to fall,” Levin said. “Likewise, when you pull programs and teachers from our school, we collapse.”

He asked the legislators, in making a plea for them to “not dismantle the pillars of our school,” why they choose to fund school districts “like a game.”

After concluding the playing of the various testimony made to the Senate committee, Birnbohm on March 30 called the funding matter a “legislative issue,” which she noted “are solved by activism and that is what we are doing.”

Katz, in the March 29 interview with this newspaper, noted that the LRHSD isn’t the only sending district in her legislative district affected by the cuts, pointing out there are local-level ones as well, and asserted the losses in aid are a “concern for all.”

That is why, Katz maintained, she “signed on as a primary sponsor of A-4160,” appropriating an additional $105,886,559, to “reinstate aid reductions this year.” Other primary sponsors of the bill include Assembly Democrats Roy Freiman (deputy

APRIL

majority leader) and Mitchelle Drulis.

But Katz told this newspaper she is also taking things one step further, appearing to heed the calls of Birmbohm “to start having serious talks about sustainable and reliable revenue sources,” with the assemblywoman on March 7 proposing, along with Drulis and Democratic Assemblywoman Michael Venezia, A-4003, with its Senate companion S-1986, to establish a “school funding formula evaluation task force.”

The purpose of the task force, according to the proposed bill, “shall be to study, evaluate and assess the provision of state school aid.” It would be a sevenmember task force occupied by the state Department of Education commissioner or a designee of the commissioner, as well as “six public members, each of whom shall have educational experience and expertise in education and municipal finance and school budgeting.”

According to a copy of the proposed legislation for this legislative session, “it shall be the purpose of the public meetings to seek input and gather testimony on the effects of the state’s current school funding formula and potential areas for improvement within the formula from education stakeholders, including, but not limited to, education finance experts, school leaders, school business officials, school board members, and members of the public.”

“I want to get that moving, so we don’t have this situation year-in and year-out,” Katz told this newspaper.

In regard to the LRHSD and some of the other school districts seeing millions in proposed reductions, Katz declared, “no school district can absorb this kind of reduction.”

“That is a lot,” she said of the loss of $4.69 million to the LRHSD. “They did their best to predict where they would end up, and it was nowhere near where it did.”

She questioned with the current funding formula in place and what has happened, “how can a school district predict” what they are going to receive in financial aid from the state each year.

“It is our responsibility to handle this – as a state government, as a state Legislature,” Katz declared. “Hopefully,

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APRIL 7

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we won’t go through this again.”

By the time of the March 29 interview with the Democratic assemblywoman, when asked for a status update on the bills, she noted “we haven’t convened” yet,” but she remains “as optimistic as she can be” and will do everything to “push the bills” through.

“I think everyone understands the urgency and importance,” she said, when this newspaper pointed to the budget adoption deadline for school districts, with her pointing to Gopal’s effort last year having success before budgets had to be adopted.

Katz was asked by this newspaper whether she has spoken to Murphy or his office directly about the situation entailing the districts, particularly the LRHSD.

“I expressed my concern with the fluctuation and unpredictability of where the numbers are,” she responded. “They know I feel strongly that you cannot do this to districts. They are very much aware this is important.”

Murphy’s press secretary, Natalie Hamilton, was asked a number of tough questions for this story, via email, specifically seeking the governor’s position on the LRHSD funding matter, and not just the state aid cuts overall.

This newspaper asked for the governor to specifically explain how he and the state Department of Education arrived at the $4.69 million reduction figure for the LRHSD, and to explain what he and his education department felt that the district could cut from its budget to make up for the lost funding. The governor and his team were also challenged on a statement he has repeatedly made, again as recently as Feb. 29, that he is working to “fully fund” state schools and his proposed plan will do that.

The governor’s press secretary, Natalie Hamilton, referred this newspaper to the state Department of Education for comment, despite this newspaper’s insistence that the governor respond to its questions, given it is ultimately his budget proposal.

“The New Jersey school funding formula, as put forth in the School Funding Reform Act of 2008 and amended in 2018, provides aid to each school district in the state based on the enrollment and characteristics of the students served, while also accounting for the community’s economics in determining the level of state support needed to educate those students,” the state Department of Education responded. “Changes in aid year to year – outside of the multi-year phasein prescribed in the 2018 amendments linked above – are most closely related to the district’s enrollment, proportion of low-income students, number of students with limited English proficiency, number of special education students, and student grade levels. Also factoring into the amount of aid received are the measures of a district’s ability to contribute to local schools, measured by property value and income. Districts receive additional aid to support transportation, school security, high concentrations of military-connected families, and other forms of categorical funding not adjusted by community factors.”

The department, however, failed to respond further when this newspaper pressed the agency on what a school district like the LRHSD is supposed to do when it loses $4.69 million, as its expenses haven’t actually gone down, and whether it is the position of the DOE that academic programs should simply be cut from affected institutions and public employees should lose their jobs. It

also would not address what went wrong communication-wise with school districts, including LRHSD, reportedly not expecting such a level of funding loss.

Other media outlets, however, have reported that they have been referred to a press release touting that Murphy has proposed a “record school funding increase in the Fiscal Year 2025 proposed budget plan” he has set forth and that plan “would fully fund the school funding formula for the first time in state history” with “$11.7 billion in funding to support equal access to education and opportunity for students across New Jersey.”

But the governor’s own press release, in which Kevin Dehmer, acting commissioner of the state Department of Education claims, “Governor Murphy has never wavered from his promise to support our schools and he has ensured that our students and educators will have the resources they need heading into the next school year,” and the governor himself declares he has “remained committed to bolstering New Jersey’s school communities,” takes one to a spreadsheet for proposed aid allotments, showing that the LRHSD would only get $18,931,779 in aid for Fiscal Year 2025 compared to what was $23,623,885 for Fiscal Year 2024, with it putting the aid percent difference for this budget over the last one at a decrease of 19.86 percent.

The statements of the governor and top education official in contradiction with the state Department of Education’s own figures for a district such as LRHSD is something the department also did not address, despite being asked.

Brian Woods, chief of staff to Tiver, as well as 8th District GOP Assemblyman Michael Torrissi, Jr., told this newspaper, in response to a question about what the current local GOP delegation was doing about the funding matter, responded that “Senator Tiver and Assemblyman Torrissi support any bill that re-evaluates the school funding formula, which they believe is broken and unfairly shifts too much state funding from rural and suburban districts to city schools, creating a gap where those schools receive about $1,900 more per pupil.”

The Singleton bill, which Tiver is already co-sponsoring, Woods explained, “calls for yearly funding cuts and gains to never exceed inflation, which would make it much easier for districts to plan.”

Birnbohm, during the March 30 LRHSD school board meeting, called the inflation component to the Singleton bill a “real creative solution.”

“No one would ever see a loss to state aid, because as everyone knows, everything goes up in price,” the superintendent said. “So, that is his proposal, you would never see a reduction in state aid. And the differential between the people getting a lot of state aid would come down a little bit. … So, you would not see these big swings.”

Woods also pointed out that the “task force bill” that Katz cited she is a prime sponsor of for studying the school funding formula “has been around in many iterations since S-2 was passed in 2018,” noting both former GOP Senator Jean Stanfield and former Republican Assemblyman Ryan Peters “actually sponsored the bill a few years ago,” and since that time, former GOP Assemblyman Brandon Umba and Torrissi have “co-sponsored various iterations.”

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possibilities when that was written up, and all four possibilities were still possible,” interjected Sprague, who on Feb. 26 had cast the lone vote against razing Town Hall. “Last month, the ‘committee of three’ decided to demolish the building. What changed where that same month the committee could have said ‘stabilize the building?’”

The fact that the professionals are now saying stabilization is no longer a viable option just a month later “doesn’t make sense to me,” Sprague declared.

But instead of Leisse answering that question, Stone answered it, responding, “That is because after Tom did his report, it deteriorated more.”

“Wait, let me finish!” snapped Sprague, intending to have Leisse give an uninfluenced answer to his question, with Stone responding, “You forget that part!”

“I didn’t forget!” retorted Sprague forcefully. “I am old, not senile!”

Sprague continued that on Feb. 26 there were “four proposals at that time” that the committee could choose from, and “out of those four proposals, the ‘committee of three’ picked ‘demolish the building,’ but “on that same night, it could have said ‘let’s move the building.’”

“Moving the building was based upon everything being off the site, and on the new site!” Leisse answered. “The moving of the building now is not feasible because there is nowhere to move it to! You are going to pick it up and move it 10 feet from where it is now?!”

McNaughton recalled having met with the professionals at Town Hall just three weeks earlier and being told of a plan to move Town Hall back from the road by 20 feet.

Leisse, in his February report, stated of one option that it “would include moving the building within the same site to a new location” and also, in discussing just making the building safe, contended that by following through with his recommendation, it would “provide the township with additional time (approximately 10 to 15 years) to complete

further repairs and improvements to the building.”

As a result, Sprague noted one could put the building in the air, but Stone responded part of it could collapse.

As McNaughton and Sprague highlighted what they saw as apparent discrepancies between Leisse’s February report and his March 25 statements, Moore declared, “Mr. Boyd, you fall into construction with the state, and basically, we got to go on direction by you, as you have the power – you are the one who deemed it unsafe where it is at.”

“Based on Mr. Leisse’s report, it is an imminent hazard,” Boyd responded. “As such, it can either be demolished or immediately repaired.”

McNaughton then asked Boyd to define “‘imminent,’” asking if it means a “month or two months.”

“I would say not even that long, sir,” Boyd answered.

The construction official then contended that it was during the pre-bid meeting that he “actually noticed” a “deflection” in the

steel beam for the floor.

“I never took out my calculator book to see what force is required for that, but a lot of force is required,” Boyd declared.

While Boyd acknowledged there had been a discussion with McNaughton about moving the building away from the road, he maintained it is “going to be very difficult” for the building to “withstand a move” now based on the latest observations which observed a sheer “amount of rot.”

“Basically, I said at the time it is time to fish or cut bait,” Boyd asserted.

An “analogy” Boyd maintained is relevant to the current circumstances and that he would like to use is that “almost three years ago, that building was given a cancer diagnosis.”

“I know with my own father, when he was given three years to live for the first 32 months, he was fine, but for those last four months, he absolutely fell off the face of the Earth with his health,” Boyd said. “In my humble opinion, this building has fallen off in the last four months. It has been that quick, yes it has.”

‘Will the Committee Entertain a Structural Engineer?’

Sprague, however, in pointing to the likely donation announced by Barton, yet again asked if stabilizing the building was a possibility, only this time he asked it of Boyd. It was a question, however, that Boyd deferred to England, but before he did so, he maintained there is now concern not just about the foundation of Town Hall, but the “actual structure.”

England maintained that a “contractor who specifically deals with this type of work” is “busy.”

“I personally noticed, when coming from Nixon’s, as l was looking at that building, the back half of that building looks to me like it is bowing out towards the road even more than it was when I was … no one can put a timeframe on it,” England said. “If anybody had a crystal ball, it would be easy. But the chance of that coming down into Medford Lakes Road is concerning to me, very concerning. And it should be to everybody.”

But Sprague persisted if a back brace could be put on the building to stabilize it.

“I think if you start trying to stabilize the building, you will destabilize the building at the same time,” said Leisse in speaking out again. “So, I don’t know if it is feasible to just put a back brace on the building. I think you need to find somebody who specializes in this

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

One can now no longer go up to the entrance of historic Tabernacle Town Hall, built in 1874 and given to the township in 1960, because it is blocked by construction fencing.

RAZE

(Continued from Page 9)

handedly, can save Town Hall and give the community time to weigh all options. Pray on it.”

Penny Moore, as well as Moore’s sister, also retorted what McGinnis had to say, however.

“Why didn’t you fix it when you were on the committee?” Penny Moore asked.

Moore’s sister, going by the name of Margaret Andress on Facebook, added, “So, tell us why, when you were a committee member for years, you never took the initiative to make the necessary renovations and upkeep.”

“The current committee did not aid in the downfall of the Town Hall,” she continued. “You and all the previous committee members did by neglecting it. And you know absolutely nothing about the farm or what my dad or brother would do, or wouldn’t do with it. It has nothing to do with this conversation.”

Jack McGinnis, in responding, wrote, in part, “because there was nothing wrong” with Town Hall when he was on the committee.

“It has been 24 years since I was on the committee,” Jack McGinnis added. “If you believe there is a real problem, ask your husband what the hell Doug Cramer (former township administrator until recently) was doing for that 24 years. Ask the worthless building inspector what the hell he was doing when he added offices on the second floor. The building is NOT in immediate threat of falling down, and your husband should stop the clown show and get three quotes for any required repairs. It is pathetic how your husband is led around by the nose, by the staff.”

Another person, however, going by the name of Sirak JB on Facebook, also responded to the question the Moores had for McGinnis, writing, “Because Penny, it is easier for all of them to be off the committee, after they took for 20 plus years off of us and not care for the

building at all.” The individual added that while “they come back and say it is such a shame and disgrace about the current committee with what THEY are doing to hurt Tabernacle,” the reality is that they did “nothing.”

“YOU DON'T

SEE THAT COMMITTEE TAKING

RESPONSIBILITY FOR THAT!!!!,” the person wrote in all caps. “What you do have is 75 residents saying words like TREASON and defaming the character of one person, they know nothing about. Sorry, that is disgusting.”

(Penny Moore, in fact, at one point maintained that only 75 residents attended the March 25 session out of some 7,500 who live in town.)

The person added the prior committees “didn't care to take care of” the Town Hall and “did you notice not one, not a one, takes responsibility.”

“Not a one says, ‘Hey, we screwed up and we didn't make this right!’, the person noted.

Committeeman Moore’s sister named more than 10 past and current township committeepersons/officials, in one post, “that could have put time and effort into repairing the Hall before now and before it got so bad,” further declaring that “they were lazy and inept” and “instead of taking accountability, they would rather blame Sammy and the rest of the committee.”

During the March 25 Tabernacle committee session, Stone posed what she called a “dumb question,” but yet, in reality, is one in which its answer has drawn high interest.

“Why wasn’t anything done, and now here we are with this crappy decision to make?” she asked.

Construction Official Tom Boyd, who reportedly first located structural issues with the Town Hall shortly after the Miami Condo collapse in 2021 (which spurred an inspection of Tabernacle buildings), responded, “I would not be able to answer that.”

McNaughton, a longtime member of the Land Use Board and who served a

have deep roots here and they are getting deeper.” He took issue with some of the remarks of Bozarth and others as “not being nice.”

“What the committee wants to do to our Town Hall isn’t very nice!” Bozarth snapped. “Us taxpayers should have a say in what we think needs to be done! We don’t want no big, high dollar Town Hall; that is not what Tabernacle is about. This isn’t Medford! This is our small Piney town and we want to keep it that way!”

Anthony Stone ultimately wrote a lengthy rebuttal to the immense blowback Hartman, Stone and Moore are receiving on the Tabernacle Historical Society page, as well as on other social media channels.

previous stint as township committeeman before his current term commenced early last year amid a committee vacancy, also responded, “It was not in front of us.”

“We knew it was in rough shape, but it being this serious, we didn’t know until a month ago it was this bad,” McNaughton asserted.

Boyd noted that he “believes some opinions were out there it wasn’t as bad as we were making it out to be” and when Stone followed up, asking, “They think you had made it up with all of your professional licenses?”, Boyd responded, “I can’t answer what they think, but I heard rumors to that degree. I can’t say for sure.”

At one point during the March 25 proceedings, a man shouted a question: “Who monitored the building?”

Hartman replied, “Please” in asking the man to stop interrupting the proceedings. But the man declared, “That question needs to be asked.”

Bonnie Shearer Bozarth, on Facebook, alleged of the three committee members who supported the demolition, “They must have other plans for that lot probably to benefit themselves not the Tabernacle residents!”

“A lot of people have deep family roots here, including me, and this is so heartbreaking to see what is happening to our town,” she further declared.

That remark was one of many that elicited a reply of Stone’s husband, Anthony.

“That is a terrible thing for you to say,” Anthony Stone responded. “You really think that this is some scheme for a committee member to benefit (from) down the road? That is an awful accusation to just throw out there. You are misinformed, not informed at all, or you just make stuff up.”

Bozarth, however, shot back, “I don’t think I’m the only one who feels this way!”

“I guess you are not a longtime resident with deep family roots here, so you probably don’t care what happens to our Town Hall!” she continued.

Anthony Stone, however, replied, “I do

“What most of you are dismissing is the fact that the taxpayers did have a say, but didn’t show up until now,” he wrote. “And, unfortunately, now it is too late. There were two comprehensive presentations on the condition of Town Hall. Pictures of the foundation crumbling, structural engineer recommendations, estimates, options, etc. – two years ago! And much further back than that as well! The previous administrations and taxpayers at the time, who were presented with options, did nothing. Not to mention it was never applied for, nor registered to be a historic building. And the president of the Historical Society (Rick Franzen) was on the committee at the time!

“And now, this current administration, which includes my wife, as I’m sure you know, was advised by the professionals and engineers and the CO that the building is in disrepair, unsafe, a hazard to the public and needs to come down. The other options to save it were absolutely 100 percent explored at length, but they were not viable options, especially since the committee was given a very short time to take action, otherwise the state would be notified, and IF anything were to happen (and yes it is a big ‘if,’ and I agree not likely) but if something did happen, it would be on the personal responsibility of the committee members for not taking action that the professionals recommended. That is a very difficult position to be in, wouldn’t you say? What would you do if you were being held personally responsible? Would you take the chance? Maybe, who knows. I don’t think I would.”

Anthony Stone continued that “this committee is taking all the heat, being blamed, ridiculed, and defamed because they had to make the decision that the previous administrations and taxpayers never did.”

“It is just not right,” he added. “They work their as*** off for us and they’re getting sh** on. My wife more than anyone. And she is the kindest, most loving, caring person you could ever know. To think she wanted to be on the committee to serve and help our community in any way she can and she is being vilified, it is crazy. And it is all because most people do not know, or have not paid any attention to all of the true information that is out there and available. I would gladly give you the links to all of the engineering reports to view to make it easier for you, so you don’t have to figure out where to find them. But, I guess it’s more fun to spread fake news and call people pieces of sh**.

“I do live here, and I do care. I’ve been

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

A view of the side of Tabernacle Town Hall, surrounded by construction fencing.

AID

(Continued from Page 3)

percent, according to state Department of Education figures.

“The overall impact for Little Egg Harbor is going to be significant because of the other district,” she pointed out.

Bass River, which has entered into a send-receive relationship with the Little Egg district, has seen its aid slashed by a whopping 60.65 percent, according to state Department of Education figures, or a decrease of $378,780.

The PRSD’s two other sending towns, Eagleswood and Tuckerton, have also seen decreases in aid, by 4.94

BUDGET

(There have been versions in past legislative sessions of the task force bill currently introduced by Katz, according to the Legislature’s website.)

“The last thing I will say is by doing some quick research, Assemblywoman Katz was the chief advocate in calling for our districts getting their funding cut in 2018,” Woods declared. “She partnered with then-Senate President Sweeney to see S2 get passed. She was the biggest cheerleader for the school funding formula and fought hard for what we are now seeing.”

percent ($27,823) and 12.56 percent ($262,435), respectively.

While there are Burlington County students that attend both the PRSD and Little Egg districts, both districts are in Southern Ocean County, which is represented by 9th District GOP Senator Carmen Amato, as well as Assemblymen Brian Rumpf and Greg Myhre.

“I think we all agree there needs to be some tweaks or major renovations within the school funding formula,” said Amato during a recent Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee meeting. “There are 140 districts really struggling (which had their aid cut). … They anticipated a certain level of cut and then they

Committee, a bipartisan grassroots group that advocates for increased school funding and had advocated for a return in funding to under-funded districts.

got a totally different cut, meaning a lot more than what was anticipated. And coming out of a pandemic, school districts are spending a lot on different services, which are unfortunately on the cutting board, because they got to meet those obligations with the income of the budget.”

The 9th District delegation has also put out a joint statement calling for the Legislature to reform New Jersey’s school funding formula.

“As evidenced by the crippling funding cuts imposed on school districts, the state’s school funding formula, referred to as S2 by many in the education community, must be reformed in the interest of ensuring that a thorough

and efficient education is provided to every student in New Jersey’s public education system,” the legislators wrote. “Since the enactment of S2, negatively impacted school districts have been forced to endure chronic school funding cuts which, to say the least, have had a profoundly debilitating impact on the delivery of education services, despite the incredible efforts of dedicated education professionals, school administrators, parents and students. Preserving the status quo will only serve to further erode the confidence of impacted school districts in the state’s ability to carry out the core function of funding our public education system in an effective and equitable manner.”

Birnbohm asserted. “So, as soon as we hear about the stabilization aid, the better. And we can get back to what we are really supposed to be doing right now, focusing on our students.”

(Katz has served as the communications director of the Fair Funding Action

Katz, when asked about her ties to the organization and the allegations of her Republican counterparts, responded, “I’ve fought for fully funding school districts my entire career and it is why I ran for the state Assembly. I worked to claw back $100 million from Jersey City and the overfunded North Jersey schools because we deserve our fair share here in South Jersey. When the governor proposed reducing aid to Lenape, I immediately worked on bills to fully reinstate the funding and take a fresh look at the formula for future years. I didn’t sit back and just send a letter like Assemblyman Torrissi and Senator Tiver.”)

In response to the other bill Katz has gotten behind, appropriating $105,886,559 to affected school districts, Birnbohm said “it would be a one-time injection of stabilization aid,” but that the “$105 million is what the 140 school districts need to make whole” for school year 2024-25.

(Continued from Page 10) See

“So, we know the governor has a surplus of $6 billion, we are asking for $105 million to make all of us whole and we would not have to worry about all this,” Birnbohm declared. “Think about the distraction this has now on everybody, including our faculty.”

The superintendent added she “can’t imagine the stress” this situation is having on “every teacher throughout the state” as “school districts are making tough decisions right now.”

“They need to be focusing on our kids,”

Tiver and Torrissi in recent days have also penned a letter to “LRHSD supporters” calling on them to “reach out to the governor and let him know that our schools cannot withstand any more funding cuts,” describing that the schools that comprise LRHSD, which also include Lenape, Shawnee and Seneca high schools, “are getting hammered by losses.”

“Reductions in state aid of this magnitude have far-ranging implications – from staff cuts to program cuts, business cuts and increases in property taxes,” the GOP delegation wrote. “Schools in our

YESHIVA

(Continued from Page 4)

But then, the prospective repurposing of the school building, which was no longer needed once the township entered into a regional arrangement for its elementary students, has been plagued by dissension for the entire two years since it was opened to bidding and Blech’s offer proved to be the highest. It wasn’t long after his bid was accepted that the developer took the school board to court over a variety of issues, including what he claimed was the difficulty of getting a CO for it, then, following the dismissal of his lawsuit early last year, attempted to convince residents that a yeshiva there would be an “asset to the community” and create a “positive environment” while also trying to persuade the township’s three commissioners to rezone the area, which proved to be another highly unpopular idea.

Blech also contended at the time that he had done everything he possibly could to find alternative uses for the facility, such as creating satellite offices for the county and even a charter school, but was unable to drum up any interest in those ideas.

However, what finally convinced the planning board to give the proposal a conditional green light, according to

EDICT

(Continued from Page 4)

since advised the board that both the homeowners association and the affected Hampton Lakes residents are “put at risk” by an arrangement of this sort.

Shivers then asked the reporter what Mikulski had said at the township committee meeting, and when told the mayor’s remarks on the subject, which included an assurance to residents that “if you fish on that lake you’re not violating any Southampton ordinance,” the attorney responded, “That’s true.”

But he contended that they would be violating a state law against trespassing— one that conceivably could be subject to enforcement by the New Jersey State Police if the property owners wished to carry the matter that far. (An alleged offense of this sort, it should be noted, would then be heard in municipal court.)

Norman, was the way New Jersey courts have ruled in similar cases, finding that uses such as religious schools are “inherently beneficial” to society, and the fact that land-use boards are “bound by the case law.”

That contention was one also voiced at the March 20 meeting by attorney Donna Jennings, of the Woodbridge law firm of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, who noted that a yeshiva under the relevant law is considered to be “analogous to a seminary or monastery” and in a category that “fundamentally serves the public good and promotes general welfare.”

Furthermore, Jennings maintained, religious institutions of this nature, “enjoy a highly favored and protected status” that “severely curtails” regulation by local government.

Also weighing in on the issue was Andrew Janiw, a licensed professional planner from Beacon Planning, in addition to Consulting Services, LLC, who advised the board that a variance of this type “cannot be granted strictly for the benefit of the applicant,” but must help to “promote public health, safety, morals and general welfare,” all objectives he maintained would be served by the proposed new use of the former school, which would also involve an “easy conversion” that conforms with the township Master Plan.

“If they decide to be trespassers, the police and LeisureTowne will have to make a decision how to deal with it at that time,” he declared.

Shivers added, however, that “this is not a situation where anybody’s trying to be mean to these people,” and indicated that he thought it would be unfair for this newspaper to convey the impression he is somehow “the bad guy” by simply informing lakefront residents of legal limitations on their property rights.

“How can he be looked at as being the good guy when he’s trying to take everything we have had since 1956?” responded Catherine Briscoe, of Lakeview Lane, who was among the recipients of Shivers’ more recent letter, when told of the lawyer’s statement to this newspaper. “He never sent any of us, who live on the lake, any proof that the insurance company is the one that is causing them to take away our privileges that we’ve had for decades. Why doesn’t he just lay it out there and show us what the problem is?”

“All necessary elements (are there) for the school to operate,” including dorms, an assembly area and kitchen space, Janiw pointed out, adding that the property would continue to be an educational facility that will make the most “efficient use of the land for structures that are already there.”

A number of residents in attendance, however, remained unconvinced that the proposal would live up to such glowing predictions, although the objections were fewer and less vociferous than those expressed at the planning board session conducted in July despite the application originally scheduled to be heard having been postponed.

William Van Orden, for instance, was among those who questioned what actual benefits the proposal would provide to the community. Pointing out that it would involve a “private religious setting,” he declared, “I don’t think we’re going to benefit at all.”

Another raising that point was Susan Dasti, who wondered how any of the alleged benefits of such a facility to the local population could result from the “isolation” and “immersive experience” that will supposedly await the prospective occupants.

Other concerns expressed by Dasti included the state of the building’s septic system, which she claimed “wasn’t functioning correctly” when it

But her family, she maintained, still intends to use the lake, just as it always has.

“They’re not really worried about it,” she said.

How the LeisureTowne Homeowners Association may be inclined to respond to any such alleged trespassing violations was something Shivers said he didn’t wish to comment on, since it involves proprietary advice he gives his clients.

“We’re addressing it,” was all he would say on the matter.

Other Hampton Lakes property owners who received the warning letter from the attorney have told this newspaper in previous interviews that they intend to continue using the lake as well.

And while Shivers acknowledged the validity of a legal point made to this newspaper by an observer, who didn’t wish to be identified, that the state owns the right to any actual waters within its jurisdiction, it was his contention that the owner of a lakebed has the right to control the use of the lake itself and

was used as an elementary school and whether the number of yeshiva students might be increased, unannounced, “to the point where it is going to have an environmental impact.”

Norman replied that while any such potential violations would have to be addressed by the county board of health and the Pinelands Commission, the school’s operators would not be allowed to expand it without authorization. But he acknowledged that “we don’t have zoning police and don’t look for violations.”

The integrity of the septic system was questioned by other residents as well, one of whom noted how “back in the ‘80s water levels weren’t as high as they are now” and maintained that if septic goes unused for a few years, it fails, in which case, “it is going to go into people’s property in the surrounding area.”

The question of whether the proposed yeshiva will be paying taxes to the township was raised by another resident, Joanna Frutiger, who was told in response that this is not an issue of concern to a land use board, whose jurisdiction is limited to matters such as parking and lighting. While religious institutions are legally exempted in New Jersey from having to pay property taxes, Blech at one point during negotiations with the municipality indicated he might be willing to do so.

restrict access to it.

The resident whose query at the meeting prompted the mayor’s remarks, Michael Coon, of Holly Boulevard, introduced himself by declaring, “I’m here to express some concern and frustration regarding the ongoing saga of Old Forge Lake,” noting that he, his wife and two children have lived there since 2017, that he had “spent countless hours out there with my family,” and that as an avid angler he was hoping to be able to continue doing so.

“I am sure that other members of Hampton Lakes feel the same way,” said Coon, adding that he wanted to inquire if there is “any sort of path to a resolution” that would allow Hampton Lakes residents to go on using the lake.

Coon emphasized that he had thus far only enjoyed good relationships with his LeisureTowne neighbors, one of whom had even helped to show him a spot on the lake where the most fish were biting.

TURMOIL

(Continued from Page 11)

type of structural engineering. From what I saw, you keep mentioning the deflective beam, if you push that beam up, it is no longer sitting on the foundation wall, and so, where is that foundation wall going to go?”

The stabilization process, the township engineer maintained, would entail putting all the load on one side of the building, and for there to be any confidence that it would hold to the pressure, “the wood has to be replaced.”

Temporary stabilization, Leisse further pointed out, had already been attempted to extend the use of the building for three months in late 2021 and early 2022, “and it just bought a little time, not enough.”

Lee, in joining with former mayors Barton, Rick Franzen (also Historical Society president), and Kim Brown in calling for a rescindment of the demolition resolution, said such building projects in town have always been decided by a voter referendum, including one in 2015 that was specifically for “minor improvements in the building” and to its grounds.

“Voters own the building and should make a decision about what to do with the building,” Lee declared. “If they want to spend $4 million, they should have the opportunity to do it.”

Moore, in response, asked how long it would take to hold such a referendum. Township Administrator and Clerk Maryalice Brown said a referendum cannot be part of a June Primary ballot, but rather would have to wait until the November General Election.

Brown’s response led Moore to conclude there is “no time for that” based on what the professionals are saying with Stone adding that she didn’t think the professionals would be willing to jeopardize their licensing. All three – Boyd, England and Leisse – were unanimous that they would not do so, with Boyd responding, “absolutely not.”

“What if it were to fall?” asked Boyd, to which Stone responded, “I can’t imagine,” with the prospect of it potentially falling leaving her “very uncomfortable.”

Boyd added as one who has an “obligation” to the Constitution (this document was raised on March 25 and at preceding meetings, with claims local officials aren’t following it and are engaging in “maladministration”) to “enforce the laws” and it would be “malfeasance and maladministration if I allowed that building to fall.”

“That would be true malfeasance and maladministration if I were to allow that building to fall,” Boyd continued. “Not one of us here would be willing to lose our license.”

Boyd also suggested it might arise to criminal negligence on their part if no action was taken, as the Town Hall “is approximately 7 feet off Medford Lakes Road – a heavily traveled road.”

“Right now, it is leaning towards that,” Boyd said. “In my opinion, it would fall that way.”

Hartman inquired, however, would 30 days “make a difference” one way or another, to which Boyd responded, “There is a very strong possibility immediate action has to be taken.”

Boyd again alluded to what Leisse and England had maintained, that it would

take beyond that time to secure the necessary structural engineering to try to salvage the building.

But Lee, in responding, said one of the two “things he has heard” from the discussion is that a “structural engineer hasn’t looked at this, or the type you need to look at this building in danger of collapse.”

“I think the simple answer is to have a structural engineer, who specializes in buildings literally falling down, come out,” Lee asserted. “That is the best thing to do as a town, find out exactly from a specialized engineer, one specialized in buildings falling down.”

Leisse’s final remarks before the committee denied, 3-2, rescinding its Feb. 26 resolution to demolish the building is that “all of that runoff is entering that building,” or what was previously described as runoff from Medford Lakes-Tabernacle Road entering it after the road was raised higher some time ago, “and we are going to get another rainstorm this week.”

“We have seen more high-duration, shortintensity storms, where we are seeing inches of rain in a matter of hours,” Leisse declared. “That building is not going to withstand that type of weather. It is not a 10-year thing, or a 5-year thing. It is a relatively new thing. We are getting a 100-year storm once a year, instead of every 100 years. … There is nowhere for the water to go.”

Boyd also pointed out that “this building was constructed prior to the establishment of building codes” and “as such, some of the structural components of the building are showing negative deflection, resulting in uneven floors and walls.”

Following the 3-2 vote to deny the rescindment, Moore said he was voting to maintain the path forward for demolition “due to the report we got tonight.”

“Will the committee entertain a structural engineer?” is a question McNaughton asked after Hartman, Stone and Moore proceeded to continue with the demolition of Town Hall.

“How long does it take?” Stone asked.

Burns pointed out that the committee has the power to declare an “emergency” and therefore doesn’t need to follow the normal bidding process.

Leisse, however, persisted “we don’t really have a lot of choices” and the committee is “not going to find” anyone to do the work within three weeks.

Hartman noted he was “hesitant” to move ahead with securing one “out of a safety concern.”

McNaughton offered a middle ground of stipulating that while preps are being made for the demolition, the township would also try to secure a structural engineer, and “if we can’t do it in three weeks,” he would be satisfied with the end result of razing the building. But he impressed upon his colleagues of at least trying to secure one instead of merely assuming one isn’t available on short notice.

Stone, however, pointed to what happened “in three weeks’ time” from the January to February meetings, or how quickly things reportedly went from bad to worse. And Moore asserted, “I can’t say ‘yes,’ as we keep saying ‘imminent danger’ – that is what spooks me.”

Brown suggested, however, an option that the committee could “re-discuss” the issue during an April workshop meeting in a couple weeks, and also “get more info on any grants and the donor.” It didn’t seem to carry much weight, however, with the

committee appearing recently to veer slowly away from the recommendations of both Maryalice Brown and Burns.

Burns counsel that the committee “compromise” and see what the structural engineer for its existing architectural and engineering firm assigned to the building can come up with to stabilize the building within three weeks’ time also didn’t get support from Hartman, Stone and Moore.

Stone raised questions as to what would happen to the $50,000 to be awarded to the demolition company should the contract be canceled.

And as discussion carried on about obtaining a structural engineer, Boyd took a more hard-lined stance against waiting any longer.

“We can’t buy more time,” Boyd declared. “That building is getting progressively worse, maybe exponentially. It has been observed by design professionals that it is now leaning, and there is an actual crease in the 8-inch high steel beam. I don’t feel comfortable. I can appreciate this. I, in fact, four years ago volunteered my time to do all the woodworking and trim for that building (temporarily shoring it up). It is not as if I didn’t have any desire to do it. Mr. Sprague, you and I came up with the idea to create a Village Greene. It is not as if I don’t appreciate these type of things. I think you know I do, deep down.”

When England went to speak to the structural engineer for his firm by phone, and announced he would be willing to come up from a stay in Florida, Boyd doubled-down, asserting, “If not tonight, the unfortunate part is it will be deemed an imminent hazard based on the reports I have, and as such I would be obligated to go to court to have it torn down.”

Boyd’s remarks led to jeers from the audience, with one woman declaring, “Oh, please!” and another individual asking, “Can you say that again?”

“I am obligated by the Uniform Construction Code to advise the solicitor to go to court to have the building torn down,” Boyd repeated. “I hear the rumblings, and understand the rumblings, but I have to look at facts. I can’t look at feelings in this, I have to look at facts.”

Snickering from the crowd was elicited by Hartman when he declared, “I don’t feel safe” in allowing the building to stand.

One woman attending the session interjected with a story that her home, built in 1885 with a sandstone foundation, was damaged during the renovation process and “literally knocked off its foundation.” But, more importantly, while the “house was deemed unsafe” and risked “coming down,” she said she was “given the opportunity to allow people to come in and figure out how to shore it up.” And while lifting the house off its foundation to make the repair, she maintained, “did cause additional damage,” those she hired were able to “stabilize it until we were able to figure out what to do with the rest of the building.”

It is an experience she believed the committee should take away lessons from.

But Boyd only reiterated the Town Hall “cancer was discovered many years ago” with Moore adding he is “really alarmed” about the prospect of Town Hall falling into Medford Lakes-Tabernacle Road.

McNaughton’s move to have a structural engineer evaluate the building for a second opinion, something he initially suggested be incorporated into the resolution

awarding the demolition contract, failed, with the committee instead voting to award the demolition contract without that clause, causing McNaughton and Sprague to cast opposing votes.

McNaughton tried once more, motioning, along with Sprague, to hire a structural engineer for a second opinion, which cause Leisse to scoff, “We are responsible in the short term” to secure such professionals?

McNaughton’s motion was denied in a 2-3 vote.

Major Road Now Closed Due to ‘Imminent Danger’

At the very end of the meeting, after the committee concluded an executive session, Stone asked, “Can you contact the county because of all the school buses, and the building leaning towards the roadway?” (A woman attending the session had earlier blurted out a question about school bus safety given the reports.)

Burns answered he “can follow up with the county engineer.”

Transparency Advocate Fran Brooks shouted, in expressing disbelief, “You can’t contact the county about the drainage (cited by Leisse as a factor playing a role in the building’s demise), but you are contacting the county about the damn buses!”

The road was closed March 27. The announcement came shortly after a resident posted on Facebook that while he very much disagreed with the handling of affairs with regard to the building, he was concerned for the safety of school buses and had written a letter to both the township and county.

“The Township of Tabernacle has taken emergency action to close approximately 1,000 feet of Medford Lakes Road (Burlington County Route 532) beginning just east of the Church of the Holy Eucharist through just west of the intersection of Medford Lakes Road and Carranza Road,” a press release sent to the media stated. “The section of Medford Lakes Road was closed to protect the public safety and welfare of motorists and pedestrians traveling on Medford Lakes Road directly to the south of Tabernacle Town Hall located at 163 Carranza Road.

“Tabernacle Township’s Construction Official and Engineer have found that Tabernacle Town Hall is an unsafe structure in imminent danger of collapse, likely toward Medford Lakes Road. The Burlington County Engineering Department approved the emergency closure of the road to protect public safety in the event of a collapse of the Town Hall. Motorists traveling east on Medford Lakes Road can access The Church of the Holy Eucharist from Medford Lakes Road. Motorists traveling west on Medford Lakes Road can enter the Church of the Holy Eucharist from Carranza Road. Russo’s Fruit and Vegetable Farm can be entered from Carranza Road and the eastern most driveway on Medford Lakes Road. It is anticipated that the section of Medford Lakes Road will re-open in three to four weeks.”

Its closure, the vote to raze the building and forgo getting a second opinion from a structural engineer, and to not greet the likely donation with open arms, as well as how the Town Hall was allowed to deteriorate to the point it is now at, has led to an explosion of tumult in Tabernacle (see separate story).

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(Continued from Page 13)

in this area for a long time, not as long as most of you. but that doesn’t mean I don’t care. I love history. In fact, I’m a history and artifact nut. Medford has nothing to do with this and I couldn’t care less about a big shiny new building. I care about people. I wish more of you would too. And I really wish you would look at ALL of the information that was presented to the public about Town Hall over the years.”

He concluded that he is “pretty sure most of you would feel differently about the position the committee has been in a maybe empathize a bit.”

The blowback only became more intense in the wake of the emergency closure of County Route 532, however, with resident Ryan Jeffery Sherry, for example, calling it simply “the total orchestration to usher in the new building.” Chris Kramer asked, “Do experienced engineers have this concern, or is this for optics because someone in the public made this ‘statement of concern’ at the meeting and this is some way to save face in someone’s mind?”

Another man, Mike Agemian, wrote, “houses built in the last 10 years will fall down before that place,” calling the described danger by the township emergency management a “bunch of bologna (also known as baloney).” Another woman questioned if the pronouncement simply amounted to an “April fool’s joke.”

“What a freaking joke they are making of this town,” wrote another person, with yet another writing, “This whole issue is bordering on the insane,” followed by an individual who contended, “Buildings don’t just flop over!”

Yet another person asserted of the road closure, “This is a textbook version of a ‘knee jerk’ reaction by those in charge” and that such decisions are “always doomed to fail.”

“These people have seriously lost it,” another individual declared of the township committee and its officials.

Things appeared to be going from bad to worse, particularly for Committeewoman Stone, whose husband acknowledged in another Facebook posting on March 31 that the committeewoman is being “vilified, ridiculed, attacked and even

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threatened for having to make the difficult decision that no other committee before had the balls to make, as advised by the professionals, to take action now.”

Anthony Stone called on Committeewoman Stone’s detractors to talk to him face-to-face and “tell me what you think of my wife,” and pointed out she has six grandchildren.

Meanwhile, former committeewoman Nancy McGinnis called on Franzen, in his capacity as Historical Society president, to call in the television stations “about the debacle going on in the town,” adding, “Maybe we can get extra support to help save Town Hall.”

Others called on the Historical Society

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to seek a court-issued injunction.

Before the vote to award a demolition contract went through, Kim Brown, who held the role of mayor and deputy mayor over the course of her 20 years of service to the township, came forward publicly and recognized that, “Unfortunately, we live in a disposable society.”

“If it is broken and in need of repair, society tends to discard the item and buy a new one,” she continued. “Historic is irreplaceable. Think about our town, and how many historic buildings will remain. If you demolish Town Hall, you will be removing a critical piece of our community’s history.

After listing the number of

organizations who used Town Hall for meetings before it was shuttered, and recounting marriages that have taken place in it, Brown referred to Town Hall as “more than just a building,” declaring, “It is a major piece of history of our community.”

“Reconsider your decision to destroy this pivotal piece of history,” she urged. “Sometimes the past is worth investing in – allow our children to experience real history in their own backyard.”

Stephen Cramer, a local history teacher, concurred that Town Hall is a “touchpoint” for local youth – “something they can touch and see – giving them a hands-on” history experience.

BUDGET

(Continued from Page 14)

municipalities are going to have to make some very tough decisions because of a broken school funding formula that unfairly punishes rural and suburban towns.”

The Republican legislators added “S2 and the seven years of cuts that followed have cost our students, teachers, parents and taxpayers dearly” and “we need a fair funding formula that does not attack our rural and suburban districts and that provides financial stability – not yearly cuts.”

The letter ends with “STOP THE CUTS!” in big, bold typeface and in all caps, as well as a link to a form to contact the governor’s office.

Regardless of what the outcome is of the pending legislation, Birnbohm, on March 30, told school board meeting attendees, “even with restoration aid, we are going to have cuts.”

“But we are going to work really hard and hopefully get some good news about restoration aid,” she said. “But we have to have cuts, because seven years in a row, we have had reductions in state aid and a cap on what we could tax, which has just been

digging into our budget and digging into our budget. And we need to make some tough decisions, anyway. But the degree of cuts just rose with that devastating state aid loss.”

She termed the various legislator’s efforts after the news broke of the significant funding loss as “positive momentum.”

Given the two-percent tax cap, what happens with the bid to secure restorative aid is not anticipated to have an impact on the taxes proposed for district towns in the 2024-25 school year budget. A district press release has outlined what is proposed:

• Evesham Township: Tax levy decrease of 1.05 cents, resulting in a decrease in regional school taxes of $26.97 on a home assessed at the township average of $272,848;

• Medford Township: Tax levy increase of 1.00 cents, resulting in an increase in regional school taxes of $45.16 on a home assessed at the township average of $330,888;

• Medford Lakes Borough: Tax levy increase of 4.78 cents, resulting in an increase in regional school taxes of $146.67 on a home assessed at the borough average of $289,833;

• Mount Laurel Township: Tax levy increase of 1.41 cents, resulting in

an increase in regional school taxes of $37.38 on a home assessed at the township average of $238,700;

• Shamong Township: Tax levy increase of 7.31 cents, resulting in an increase in regional school taxes of $233.90 on a home assessed at the township average of $310,641;

• Southampton Township: Tax levy increase of 3.46 cents, resulting in an increase in regional school taxes of $32.46 on a home assessed at the township average of $189,066;

• Tabernacle Township: Tax levy increase of 5.26 cents, resulting in an increase in regional school taxes of $145.38 on a home assessed at the township average of $274,369; and

• Woodland Township: Tax levy increase of 1.00 cents, resulting in an increase in regional school taxes of $17.82 on a home assessed at the township average of $255,200.

As for what may be cut regardless of what happens with the restorative aid, the release notes, “the budget put forth includes operational, programmatic, and staffing reductions including not replacing retirements, and other cost saving measures proposed by the administration

and subject to approval by the executive county superintendent.” No specific programs or teachers proposed to be cut have been identified as of press time should the funding allotment stay on course. The proposed General Fund tax levy increase, it is added, is 2.08 percent and there is no debt service tax levy increase this year.

Once the budget is approved by the executive county superintendent, the district will hold a public hearing on the budget and tax impact, followed by a final budget vote (the preliminary budget received approval from the board without objection). Right now, that is scheduled for the board’s session on April 24, at 7:30 p.m., at the K. Kiki Konstantinos Administration and Staff Development Building, 93 Willow Grove Road, in Shamong.

“Everyday, Dan and I see the future generations of Cherokee Chiefs,” Levin told the Senate committee recently. “They are siblings, neighbors, teammates and friends. I know they are all ready to pursue every opportunity given to them. I know they are ready to chase whatever their heart tells them to go after. I know they are ready to be the future of our world. A lack of action today will deny these bright minds the future.”