Officials Reportedly Negotiating 25-mph School Zone on Stokes Road

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

MEDFORDLAKES—A stretch of Stokes Road that runs through Medford Lakes Borough will be designated a “school zone” shortly, according to borough officials.

Both the borough and Burlington County, the latter who has primary jurisdiction over the road because it is a county-maintained highway, are said to be in the process of finalizing an agreement, according to Borough Solicitor Doug Heinold during a March 22 Medford Lakes Borough Council meeting.

Borough Clerk Mark J. McIntosh said that the affected corridor is from about “Trading Post Way roughly through Beach Drive.”

Local officials have been reportedly having “some communications” with the county in hoping to have the speed limit reduced to 25 mph at all times, but as Heinold recognized, “the county is pretty protective of their speed limits.”

By designating the currently 35-mph corridor a school zone, it won’t be a “straight 25-mph speed limit reduction,” but rather the speed limit will be reduced to 25 mph when “children are present.”

“They are satisfied that the 35-mph speed limit that exists is being adhered to sufficiently and appropriately for that area, but also understand certain crossings there are used by students,” said Heinold of the borough’s discussions with the county.

However, the borough solicitor recognized that by just having a speed limit when children are present “doesn’t give great understanding to motorists when to slow down.”

In crafting a possible measure to codify the new speed limit, Heinold said officials are “probably going to do a timeframe when students come and go, especially with afterschool activities, and see if that works.”

In the borough, hundreds of students walk or bike to area beaches and stores in the business district, especially in the warmer weather months.

Complaints about speeding on Stokes Road have been heard at various Medford Lakes Borough Council meetings, particularly since a summer 2022 crash at Stokes Road and Pawnee Trail in the borough reportedly left a Mullica Hill teenager dead and four others injured.

That head-on collision, however, happened in the early morning hours of June 13, 2022.

A Shamong Township woman has since been charged with driving while impaired and causing the death of the teenage motorist.

Former borough councilman Joseph Aromando III described during a preceding

March 8 Medford Lakes council meeting that the speeding is so bad on Stokes Road that it is “begging for some immediate action.”

McIntosh, in response, revealed that Medford Lakes Police Chief Robert Dugan, Jr., along with Borough Manager Dr. Robert Burton, have been meeting with the county’s engineers and had successfully gotten the county to agree to a 25-mph speed limit (school zone), declaring,

“it was amazing to me when I heard” that the “county is on board to lower the speed.”

Aromando responded that the “other thing that has got to be done” is that the county needs to create a no-passing zone on Stokes Road through the borough to “prohibit any type of passing,” contending that he “almost got clipped” recently when attempting a left turn with “some idiot wanting to beat me and go around me before I made the left-hand turn.”

“People are just cruising to get through here,” declared Aromando, pointing out that there is a far more rural section of county road in neighboring Shamong that has “double yellow lines.”

Medford Lakes Mayor Dr. Gary Miller called Aromando’s observations about the no passing zone in a more rural area, but yet passing being allowed in a section of Stokes Road in the borough “good points” that he will “bring up.”

Also occurring during the latest Medford Lakes council meeting was unanimous approval given to take $35,000 from the borough’s Capital Improvement Fund and put that towards a payment for repairing the Lower Aetna Dam, which is on Stokes Road, across from P.J. Whelihan’s restaurant. As he had previously told this newspaper, Burton explained to borough council that the dam requires “restoration from a washout a few years back” when “water came up and crested to the road and washed off sand.”

“We are required to repair that and bring it back up to where used to be,” the Medford Lakes manager maintained, noting the sand will be replaced and some vegetation that has grown in the area will be removed. “We already funded the money because it is in capital already, but we need to have this ordinance to spend money on the project.”

Council, according to McIntosh, will officially award a contract for the project at its next meeting, with Burton noting the borough had received a bid for around $35,000. It is also during borough council’s next meeting that Heinold said he expects to have a measure on the agenda for the governing body’s consideration that will approve of a “25-mph school zone,” noting the “county has to adopt a corresponding resolution.”

Having Created a New Role for a Rehabilitated Old School, Friends of Cyrus to Spiffy Up Setting of an Even Older One Support Group for Adults with Disabilities Getting Ready to Assume Grounds Maintenance, Beautification for One-Room 1890 ‘Museum’

with a special emphasis on horticultural and gardening skills.

This next phase of the work, according to Sam Abdallah, the group’s chief operating officer and executive director, should prove to be a mutually beneficial one that will both help to preserve a piece of the area’s history while providing the individuals it serves with a chance to cultivate the seeds of their own potentials in ways that can enable them to become contributing members of society.

“Our biggest hope is to become more integrated into the community that surrounds us,” Abdallah told this newspaper.

To this end, he noted, Friends of Cyrus initiated a partnership with the local Historical Society and its president, Rick Franzen, from the opening of its day program at the facility.

By Bill Bonvie Staff Writer

TABERNACLE—The term “old school” is one that is usually used to describe a traditional way of doing things or old-fashioned values, such as hard work and showing respect for others.

But on the Tabernacle Township grounds of Friends of Cyrus, an organization dedicated to providing a haven of support and providing opportunities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to become productive members of society, “old school” quite literally has a double meaning.

Not only did the organization choose to set up its second training facility in an actual “old school” – the vintage brick one at 180 Carranza Road – that was in need of rehabilitation and a new mission after being struck by a car four years ago, but it is now about to become involved in the beautification of an even older school – a traditional 19th Century one-room schoolhouse that sits right next door to it, known as the “Friendship School.”

That structure, one dating back to about 1890 that was moved to the property in 1986 after having been moved 11 years before from its original location in Washington Township back in 1975, has since been renovated by the Tabernacle Historical Society, which turned it into a “little museum” of sorts, and this year has had its exterior cleaned up and restored as well by a Moorestown Boy Scout troop.

The next phase of that work, which will involve both beautification and regular maintenance of the grounds, is the one in which the Friends of Cyrus will be picking up the mantle.

It’s the kind of project, in fact, that coordinates perfectly with one of the chief goals the organization’s CEO and co-founder Kamelia Kameli, would like to realize for many of its participants (as she relayed to the Pine Barrens Tribune a year ago) – preparing them for employment in the wider community,

“Rick and his team have been very helpful in providing us with background and historical information about the town in general and specifically the schoolhouse,” he maintained.

Abdallah added that having the Boy Scouts come out and help in this effort has not only served to further develop the potentials of those in the Friends of Cyrus program, but to educate young people in the area about individuals with disabilities.

Franzen, in a phone interview with the Pine Barrens Tribune, described the relationship between Friends of Cyrus and the Tabernacle Historical Society as being a “win-win for both of us.”

“When they purchased the building,” Franzen recounted, “(Vice President) Mary Ann Silvers and I reached out to them right away.”

“We wanted to keep the schoolhouse there and we wanted to integrate their program with that of the schoolhouse,” he added. “We signed a lease agreement for the site, and that has worked out beautifully.”

Franzen said he has since talked to the group about having a garden club comprised of their participants look after the flowers and the grounds. As it was, he said, Friends of Cyrus was planning to start a garden club of its own for them, so “this fit in perfectly with their plans.”

The group will begin tending to its planting and maintenance duties just as soon as the weather turns a bit warmer, he added.

At present, according to Alixandra van Sciver, communications relations coordinator for Friends of Cyrus (which is named after Kameli’s own son with autism, Cyrus Esmi, whose unmet needs were the impetus for its founding), the Tabernacle facility, one of three currently maintained by the organization, has some 20 participants in its regular day program and another 16 in an enhanced behavioral program for more challenged individuals,

See FRIENDS/ Page 9

Agricultural Advisory Committee Proposed for Pemberton Township to Give Local Farmers a Say on Land Use Issues, Councilman Declares

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON—Just minutes after hearing from several farmers who protested a planned cannabis cultivation facility for North Pemberton Road, Pemberton Township Council proposed creating an Agricultural Advisory Committee, which would follow through on a recommendation said to have been issued back in 2009 that would reportedly help further implement the state’s Right-toFarm Act in the township as well as give local farmers a say in land use issues.

Although a proposed ordinance that would codify the creation of the committee appeared on an agenda for the March 15 meeting, there were some indications that the proposed measure was being hastily introduced, with Township Solicitor Andrew “Andy” Bayer initially questioning whether the item was going to be added to the agenda, apparently not realizing it was already on it for council’s consideration, and then later revealing he had only been given a copy of it the day prior to the meeting.

Farmers attending a Pemberton council meeting enmasse is something that had not previously happened for at least several years here prior to March 15. They can be an important voting bloc in the community come election time.

As previously reported by this newspaper, Republican Councilman Joshua Ward, in stating March 15 that he would be voting “no” in giving support to Eastern Tiger, LLC, to open up a cultivation facility on a 17-acre soybean farm at 195 North Pemberton Road comprising a 40,000 square-foot red barn for the cannabis growing operation, recognized the crowd of farmers in the room.

Ward also raised questions about the use of soil and water consumption, while several of the farmers became outspoken against the proposal, by calling the operation “fake farming” and the prospective end result a “fake farm.”

Ward said that it was him and fellow Republican Councilman Dan Dewey who “introduced this ordinance,” or one that would create an Agricultural Advisory Committee, for listing on council’s meeting agenda.

He further maintained that he has “been doing a lot of research” and “digging through”

Pemberton Township’s Master Plan and found that creating the committee had been “recommended by the state.” He noted the Master Plan containing that recommendation was from 2009 and last amended in 2014.

“And I think it is a good thing to protect the farmers and farmland in the community and potentially help give them a voice and adopt New Jersey’s Right-to-Farm Act down the road.”

According to a brochure from the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, the Right-to-Farm Act “is designed to help address conflicts among farmers, neighbors, municipalities and counties regarding a farm’s practices.”

If a conflict cannot be resolved informally, such as through agricultural mediation or other discussion by the parties, the act “provides for a formal review process” and “anyone aggrieved by the operation of a commercial farm is required to file a complaint with the County Agriculture Development Board (CADB) prior to filing an action in court.”

The Right-to-Farm Act is said be “coordinated locally” and under the act, “responsible commercial farms that meet the act’s eligibility criteria can receive significant protections from nuisance lawsuits and overly restrictive local regulations.”

“Burlington County already has a council of such, and so does the state,” Ward pointed out. “I have been living in the township my entire life, and I also think farmers need to have a voice and this is a way to give it to them in a very positive manner.”

Essentially, according to Republican Mayor Jack Tompkins, the way the proposed ordinance reads as of now is that it would create an “ad hoc committee to the Planning Board” in the municipality and that his preference would be to make it a “standalone committee.”

Bayer, in response, said that “he doesn’t know if those words matter” and that he “guesses the idea is that the committee somehow advises the board on farming issues and applications.”

But Ward countered that the “formula” for the proposed ordinance is one “derived from the recommended sheets from state AG committee, which in turn concerns the CADB.”

“The reason why it is supposed to be performed as an ad hoc to the planning board is because of Right-to-Farm Act created in 1964, giving farmers the ability to identify nuisances to farmlands and also speak to protected farmland and unprotected farmland at this point and time,” Ward maintained.

Ward noted that he “didn’t change the ordinance” from the boilerplate text provided by the state and had forwarded it to Bayer for his review, with the township attorney responding, “I got it yesterday” and “read it,” but that he would need some time to do a greater review.

Tompkins expressed his belief that in Pemberton’s form of government he is a “chairperson or member of all committees,” but Bayer expressed his belief that was “not as a matter of law,” but he “will look at that.”

The mayor also pointed out that the proposed ordinance as written would allow for the appointment of three members to an Agricultural Advisory Committee, but that it says they would be appointed by the governing body.

“Normally all appointments approved by mayor,” declared Tompkins, with there having been a recent debate over the appointment powers of the mayor in Pemberton’s form of government (see separate story).

Bayer responded to the mayor that “you are correct” and that the “formula didn’t account for our form of government here.”

The proposed ordinance that would create an Agricultural Advisory Committee as an ad hoc committee to the Planning Board received a 5-0, bipartisan introduction with the councilmembers agreeing to “one change” to allow for the appointments to it to be made “by the mayor in lieu of the governing body.”

The measure is scheduled to receive a second reading before final adoption sometime in April.

“Had this had been introduced in 2009, the township would have benefited from $1 million in grants,” maintained Dewey with him and Ward the first Republicans to be seated on council earlier this year since 2016. “It is just something to look at.”

Medford Township Man Charged with Murder in Death of Wife

MEDFORD— A Medford Township man has been charged with killing his wife in their Regent Court home last week, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office.

Babu Natarajan, 40, was charged with firstdegree murder. He was taken into custody on March 29 at his residence and lodged

• in Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly pending a detention hearing in Superior Court.

According to the prosecutor’s office, officers from the Medford Township Police Department were called to the residence on March 21 for a

See MURDER/ Page 13

•

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