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

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

PROPOSED TABERNACLE MUNICIPAL Vol. 8 – No. 5 ♦ The NewsBUILDING Leader of the Pines ♦ January 6, 2024 - January 12, 2024 COMMUNITY/ PUBLIC

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SECURE PUBLIC CORRIDOR

TAX FILE ARCHIVE 130 sq ft 31'-10" TAX ASSESSOR W/ CLERICAL

11'-3"

TAX COLLECTOR CLERICAL/ COPIER 456 sq ft

Immediate Plans for Separate Community Room, Courtroom Dropped; Planned Public Works Facility Now Said to Be Put Off Until ‘Phase II’

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TABERNACLE MUNICIPAL BUILDING CARRANZA ROAD TABERNACLE, NJ 08088

TOWNSHIP FILE ARCHIVE 350 sq ft

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CFO 32'-7"

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TWP CLERK CLERICAL/ COPIER 194 sq ft

WC BREAK ROOM 138 sq ft

ADDRESS:

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PUBLIC PUBLIC CUST. RESTRM. RESTRM. 45 sq ft

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CONFERENCE 114 sq ft REF

29'-9"

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10'-6"

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PUBLIC LOBBY 452 sq ft

TOWNSHIP CLERK 159 sq ft

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CIVIC/ MEETING 179 sq ft

50'-0"

12'-0"

10'-0"

126 SEATS

TABERNACLE MUNICIPAL BUILDING

SECURE STAFF ENTRY

CORR. GALLEY 114 sq ft

Tabernacle Committee Approves $8 Million Bond for Construction of New Town Hall, But Reduces Square Footage of Planned Facility in Surprise to Residents, Who Are Now Calling for Detailed Timeline

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TABERNACLE—A new floor and site plan has been approved by the Tabernacle Township Committee for a new Tabernacle Town Hall, taking the size of the planned facility from 11,670 PRINT DATE:

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It is part of a “reduced scope” for the project, one that Township Administrator and Clerk Maryalice Brown revealed was undertaken to reduce anticipated project costs.

See HALL/ Page 8

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LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

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Saturday, January 6, 2024

6 People Comb Through Wreckage of 6ABC’s Chopper Six in Washington Twp. with 8 People Working Investigation Dec. 19 Evening Crash in Remote Area of Wharton State Forest Claims Life of Pilot, Photographer Returning from Assignment

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

WASHINGTON—The National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB) has eight people working the investigation into the deadly crash of WPVI-TV’s “Chopper 6,” after the news helicopter leased to the Philadelphia ABC affiliate by U.S. Helicopters Inc., crashed in a remote section of the Wharton State Forest in Washington Township on the evening of Dec. 19, killing a pilot and news photographer on board.

P i lot Mon ro e W. Sm it h , 67, of Glenside, Pennsylvania, and passenger Ch r istopher W. Doug her t y, 45, of Oreland, Pennsylvania, were confirmed by the New Jersey State Police to have died in the crash.

The 2013 American Eurocopter AS-350 Astar, according to the ABC affiliate, is suspected to have crashed just after 8 p.m. on Dec. 19.

George Fedorczyk, chief of the State Park Police, reported that officers were dispatched at 10:55 p.m. that day for a report of a missing helicopter, and following a search, at 12:02 a.m. on Dec. 20, State Park Police discovered a debris field in the area of Mullica River Road.

“The wreckage path we initially thought was 100 yards long, but it is now double that,” said Todd Gunther, an investigator with the NTSB’s Office of Aviation Safety, in a Dec. 22 press conference outside the Wharton State Forest office in Shamong Township, a couple miles from the scene.

The path in Washington was found to have extended from where the aircraft came all the way to rest to a firebreak in the woods, according to Gunther, with video from another television station’s helicopter showing debris scattered about in the woods, and a small brush fire that broke out near the crash site.

Investigators, Gunther said, “determined the approach angle into the trees was very shallow” and that the “aircraft hit at a very high speed.” Additionally, “after striking the trees, it fragmented,” the NTSB investigator noted.

Gunther also noted that “tree strike images shows that it was in a descending patter n,” or that “in other words” the helicopter was “descending when impacting the trees.”

Gunther reported on Dec. 22 that the NTSB is so far unaware of any distress calls that were made, but that there “are some witnesses currently being interviewed.” He could not say, however, if those witnesses actually observed the crash itself.

The helicopter had taken off from Northeast Philadelphia Airport on a “videography mission,” Gunther said, and arrived on an assignment in Galloway Township, Atlantic County, filming “Christmas lights activity.” It was when it was “returning back to base,” according to the NTSB investigator, that it crashed.

“Preliminary air traffic control data shows the aircraft was on course when the

accident occurred,” Gunther said.

So far, it has been prelim inar ily determined that the helicopter impacted the trees “on a 320-degree magnetic heading.”

“It then traveled through the woods, through those 200 yards, before coming to rest and then was subject to a post-crash flight,” Gunther reported.

What he could say about the preliminary investigative findings, so far, is “our examinations have indicated there was no type of inflight fire or inflight explosion with the aircraft.”

Add it iona l ly, i nve st igator s have re covered “al l four cor ners of the helicopter, including the nose, tail and both sides,” as well as “all four main rotor blades and both tail rotor blades,” Gunther noted.

Breaks in the main rotor blades were found, he said, indicating the rotor blades were “turning when it impacted the trees,” and that they had power.

Both tail rotor blades were also broken, according to Gunther, signifying that they “did strike the trees under power or during rotation.”

The transmission, he reported, “is functional” with a chip detector, which is magnetic, “clean” and containing “no metallic debris on it.” It has also been found that the helicopter had “drivetrain continuity.”

Add it ion a l ly, Gu nt he r r e p or t e d investigators have “looked at the engine, and the engine displays power signatures, which indicates it was under power during the impact sequence.”

The NTSB was on the ground for approximately three days, with a six-man crew engaged in “wreckage recovery” and picking up the pieces for what will be a two-dimensional reconstruction in a “secure location” to allow for a “more in-depth” examination to occur, where the pieces will be laid out “in scale.”

The manmade machine as well as the environmental interface will be scrutinized by investigators, Gunther vowed.

“We will look at anything that affected the accident flight or may have been causal,” he said. “We will be looking at structure of the helicopter, making sure nothing fell off the helicopter, and making sure the helicopter system was intact prior to the impact. We will be looking at the rotor system, including the main rotor and tail rotor. We will be looking at the drive system that drives them, including the transmission and driveshafts.

“We will be looking at the flight control systems also that control the helicopter in both pitch, roll and yaw. Basically, what that means, is the nose of the helicopter going up and down in pitch, the helicopter rolling left and right, and yaw is the helicopter turning left and right.”

Additionally, Gunther said, “we will be See CRASH/ Page 13

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Pre-Christmas Flood Damages Kirby’s Mill Dam, Freedom Park in Medford, 2 Homes Reportedly Take on Water in Southampton

At Height of Event, Four Voluntary Evacuations Occur in Southampton, But None Reported in Medford; Vincentown’s Old Telephone Building OK

Tabernacle Twp. Committee Asks Fire Department to Provide List of All Equipment, Conditions After Second, Hasty Funding Request Latest Request Was for Additional $20K to Support $50K Engine Repair, Which Was Granted on Heels of $725,000 Bond Ordinance for Pumper

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

Floodwaters overtake Main Street in the Vincentown Village section of Southampton on Dec. 18, with debris on the roadway, including tree branches.

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

MEDFORD—Several rounds of heavy rain, including between 3 and 6 inches that fell on Dec. 17-18 in Burlington County, according to the National Weather Service, led to flooding of low-lying areas and as well as areas along portions of the Rancocas Creek in both Medford and Southampton townships, emergency managers reported.

For most areas, however, the impacts were minor, but in Medford, there were some pockets of reported damage. Two homes were also reported to have been impacted by floodwaters in Southampton.

Ac c ord i ng to Rob er t Dov i, Jr., emergency management coordinator for Medford Township, the storm caused localized flooding in Medford along the Southwest Branch of the Rancocas Creek, and the tributaries that connect to the creek, including Haynes Creek, Little Creek, Sharps Run and Barton Run creeks.

“The flooding caused damage to Kirby’s Mill Dam when it overtopped, along with damage to Freedom Park,” Dovi reported.

Kirby’s Mill Dam had just had work done earlier in the fall to repair damage from a 2019 flood.

“We continue to assess the damage and are working with Burlington County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to provide information to New Jersey State Police OEM and FEMA to see if we will qualify for a federal declaration,” Dovi said.

Medford Township posted pictures on its Facebook page of the off-leash run areas of Freedom Park, also known as Freedom Barks, maintaining the area along the Rancocas Creek “sustained s er ious d a mage from the mu ltiple rainstorms the past two weeks.”

Dovi told this newspaper on Dec. 29 that “we have not been able to access some of the areas in Freedom Park yet,” www.pinebarrenstribune.com

but that in the areas they have been able to get to, “some of the footbridges were dislocated.” There was also noted “erosion due to flooding,” which has “caused trip hazards along the pathways,” the Medford emergency management coordinator said.

On Dec. 28, the township announced the closure of Shiloh, Buddy and Lucy trails at the park, as well as Dog House Field, reporting that “these areas and trails will remain closed until repairs can be made” and that as of that time, “these trails are too saturated for township staff to access and make repairs.”

“Temporary fencing, caution tape, and signs have been posted identifying what areas shall be avoided,” the township announced, but the large open fields and fenced-in dog runs have already reopened.

Dovi also reported that “we did have a few homeowners who were impacted by the flooding,” but that “no evacuations were ne e de d” a nd “t here were no reported injuries.”

A number of roadways in Medford were detoured at one point due to the flooding, he added.

“We are still working on a dollar amount for the damage,” Dovi declared.

I n Sout h a mpt on Tow n sh ip, t h e Rancocas Creek overflowed its banks, causing floodwaters to overtop Main Street between Pemberton Road and Church Street, as well as on Mill Street, near the Southampton Historical Society’s Old Telephone Building in Vincentown.

“I understand the Telephone Building i s OK,” s a id Sout h a mpton Mayor Michael Mikulski.

Despite some barriers having been posted to detour motorists, some found their ways around them on Mill Street, this newspaper observed, causing some residents to yell at motorists to turn around

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES ♦ Page 3

TABERNACLE—A second somewhat hasty request by the Tabernacle Fire Department for vehicle funding, this time to “repair” a whole host of purported “defects” with fire Engine 4313, as outlined in a three-page quote from a South Plainfield repair company in a Sept. 6 letter presented to the Tabernacle Township Committee during its Dec. 11 close-out meeting, has the governing body asking for a “list of all equipment and statements of their condition.”

The Tabernacle committee is already facing some heat for the somewhat urgent nature the fire company approached the governing body in the fall for a new pumper truck, having to approve a $725,000 bond for a new one within only a months’ time, despite that tender having been out for evaluation several months before then (see separate story).

In trying to justify the latest request, Township Administrator and Clerk Maryalice Brown maintained the fire department is “trying to catch up in repairs when the trucks were in the care of the other company.”

She noted the repair bill before the committee on Dec. 11 was for $50,000, yet, the fire department line item was only $32,000.

“It is up to the committee whether to authorize $18,000, or transfer more into that line item and do all $50,000,” Brown declared.

Mayor Samuel “Sammy” Moore asked if the transfer occurs, how would it affect the 2024 budget.

Rodney Haines, the township’s chief financial officer, contended the transfer “could be done,” with money available in the Streets and Roads line item, the result of the township having not had to purchase a lot of salt and sand after a “very warm year,” in which no snow fell in 2023.

In the “grand scheme of things,” Haines continued, “half of surplus comes from revenues and half comes from being conservative with budgeting.”

“But again $20,000 is not going to kill the budget at all,” Haines maintained.

Committeeman Noble McNaughton concluded “something needs to be done” and it is “probably one of those things that needs to be done now or later.”

“It will be more expensive later,” said McNaughton, recognizing continuing inflation.

That being said, however, McNaughton said he would like to see a “list of all their equipment with statements of their condition” as well as “statements of the See LIST/ Page 15

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Mobile Estates Residents Decry Rent Increase Resulting From Southampton’s November Decision to Raise Mobile Home Fees

Mayor Insists Governing Body Simply Corrected Oversight and Applied What Was Set to Begin in 2017, Called on Carpet After Justifying Need on ‘Same Services’ Given to Rest of Town – Which Isn’t Exactly the Case

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

SOUTHAMPTON—Residents of the Mobile Estates mobile home park have now reportedly been served with letters from their landlord, notifying them of an $11 rent increase effective Jan. 1, apparently on top of another November rent increase of $25, the former the result of Nov. 21 action by the Southampton Township Committee to move forward with a fee increase that was supposed to happen back in 2017, but for an unknown reason, didn’t.

M icha el M i k u lsk i, m ayor of Southampton Tow nsh ip, faci ng an audience of upset Mobile Estates residents during a Dec. 19 committee meeting, kept emphasizing that the committee in November simply corrected something that should have already happened and was set to commence in 2017, and didn’t raise the rent for any of the tenants, and has no control over the rental fees that they are assessed. (Back in October, when the measure to correct the oversight was first introduced, Mikulski merely labeled what it was doing as simply “cleaning the books, as we talked about a couple years ago.”)

But the tenants attending the session seemingly saw through that bureaucratic speak, facing the bottom-line that it was a November governing body vote affirming to proceed with the fee increase, subsequently assessed to the landlord, that in turn led the proprietor to pass it along to the tenants, which had happened before and led to a previous uproar.

Mikulski was particularly called on the carpet by a resident when he justified the need for an increase based on the “same services” taxpayers have to pay for, and after the resident demanded to know what services the Mobile Estate community gets, and pointed out that the renters there do not enjoy a lot of the same services that other parts of the municipality are offered, the mayor was forced to acknowledge that was true.

The clash with Mobile Estates residents started when a man by the name of Anthony came to the dais and reported that he was in receipt of a “letter about extra money”

the tenants would soon be charged.

“Are we getting something new for that money?” the man asked.

The Southampton mayor, in beginning his response, maintained he “wasn’t on the township committee” when the decision was made to raise the mobile home fee, maintaining it was originally part of a “2013 ordinance.” (He wasn’t on the governing body when an initial decision had been made in 2013, but he was in 2023 when the governing body chose to move ahead with the increase via a new ordinance after the oversight was discovered that the final phase-in had not been applied as it should have been in 2017.)

“Apparently, the township had not raised it in a long time,” he continued, recounting the past as if he had been briefed on what had occurred before his time. “There was a meeting like this, where (there was outcry) about raising the money in all, one fell swoop. So, the township, at that time, passed another ordinance and agreed to phase in the increase.”

Mikulski, in continuing to recount what he has since learned, noted that the phase-in originally decided is as follows (the following are weekly charges): • 2014- $3.50 for a single, $4 for a double • 2015-$4 for a single, $4.50 for a double • 2016-$4.25 for a single, $4.75 for a double • 2017-$7 for a single, $14 for a double “The increase went in, in 2014, 2015 and 2016, but in 2017, it never went up as it was supposed to,” Mikulski said. “The other trailer park in town, Richards, did (have it) go up, and has been paying it since 2017. This year we found it hadn’t been increased (for Mobile Estates).”

The mayor contended he “doesn’t know why” the increase had never been applied as had been scheduled. It is unclear whether the cause of the oversight is under investigation.

But, when the township attempted to begin collecting what was supposed See FEES/ Page 10

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Saturday, January 6, 2024

Medford Lakes Mayor Offers Word of Caution to Borough Residents After Revealing Rabid Raccoon Found, Urges Participation in Clinic

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

MEDFORD LAKES—A rabid raccoon was recently found in Medford Lakes Borough, confirmed Mayor Dr. Gary Miller on Dec. 27.

The revelation followed a council meeting announcement that day from Borough Clerk Mark J. McIntosh that the borough’s annual Rabies Clinic has been scheduled for Feb. 3 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Oaks Hall.

“The importance of the rabies clinic is heightened in the sense that a rabid racoon was recently found on the other side of Medford Lakes, almost at the back of my house,” said Miller, who lives in the vicinity of Osage Trail.

The discovery of a rabid racoon “means rabies is in the area,” the mayor declared.

“I don’t know if it has spread to other animals, but we need to be ever vigilant to protect our dogs and ourselves from this horrible disease,” Miller said.

For those wishing to attend borough council meetings, the meetings will

continue to be held generally on a biweekly basis, but now on Thursdays, instead of on Wednesdays.

“Council made a decision to switch borough council meetings to Thursday nights, which lines them up with the Historic Preservation Commission and Planning Board as well,” McIntosh explained.

The lone exception will be on Jan. 10, when longtime Medford Lakes Police Department Lieutenant John McGinnis Jr. is scheduled to be sworn in as municipal police chief, taking over for Robert Dugan Jr., who retired in November.

A pair of bond ordinances previously adopted were amended by council on Dec. 27, with Dr. Robert Burton, borough manager, explaining that there was some unspent money set aside through the measures that the municipality is “reappropriating for the 2023 road program” as recent bids “came in a little bit higher” than anticipated.

Among the items to be funded by the repurposed funds are improvements to Mohawk Circle, according to Burton.

Medford Lakes Officials’ Handling of $118,000 Change Order Query, Alleged ‘Odd Comments’ Give Rise to Tirade of Former Councilman

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

MEDFORD LAKES —A $118,078 change order and, in a separate issue, apparently initially incorrect dates on a resolution for annual appointments of a body, and the way in which those matters were handled, as well as alleged “odd comments,” in addition to delays with revising a tree law, has led to a flare up of an ongoing rivalry between the current Medford Lakes Borough Council and former borough councilman Joseph A. Aromando, III, which erupted on Dec. 13 and was carried over into a Dec. 27 session.

Aromando had been late in arriving to the Dec. 13 session, and by the time he entered council chambers at 7:03 p.m., an initial public comment period for the evening meeting was closed.

But when it was later observed during the session that council was entertaining passage of a change order of $118,078 for sewer system lining improvements due to a “price increase” and that Insituform

Protectors Of Public Health & Property

Technologies would now be receiving a total of $4,898,103 for its recent work in town, the former borough councilman stated aloud, “$118,000 is a lot of money.”

“How can you be that far off?” he asked the council.

Borough Solicitor Doug Heinold, instead of answering the question posed by the resident and former official, responded, “This is not public comment!”

“Sorry,” added Mayor Dr. Gary Miller, refusing to entertain Aromando’s question as the chair of the meeting.

Officials’ handling of the question appeared to set the stage for Aromando ripping into officials during a later, second public comment period.

But before the session got to that point, Deputy Mayor William Fields asked for an explanation of what the additional $118,078 to Insituform Technologies is for.

Borough Clerk Mark J. McIntosh responded that the additional amount See QUERY/ Page 7

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Tabernacle Passes $725K Bond Ordinance to Finance New Pumper Truck, But Officials Chided for Hasty Presentation of Need, Debt Accumulation Mayor Defends Fire Department’s Process Before Coming to Governing Body, Financial Officer Says Township Can Borrow About $8M Until Limit Reached

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

TABERNACLE—A $725,000 bond ordinance has been approved by the Tabernacle Township Committee to finance the purchase of a replacement for a 24-year-old pumper truck belonging to the Tabernacle Fire Department.

But the rapid pac e at wh ich the Tabernacle Township Com mittee is increasing municipal debt, as well as how hasty the fire department’s need came to the committee is drawing criticism from two township transparency advocates, who are also municipal residents.

The Pine Barrens Tribune reported in October that fire department commanders that month said a 2000 Kenworth New Lexington pumper truck, known locally as Tender 4316, which “helps us get water from the firehouse to the scene” of a call and carries 3,500 gallons of water, is now presenting “a lot of serious safety concerns,” including “major rust issues, major electrical issues, air leaks and pump failure.”

The commandants went into detail about how they spent the previous six months seeking evaluations on the truck, but that revelation led to questions as to why it was only in October that the committee was first apprised of the issues with the truck and presented with what amounted to an urgent request for funding.

Fire officials previously contended, in response, that they wanted to have a thorough evaluation of the tender completed by the various firematic and non-firematic companies to see “what do they think” and have them “put a life” span on it, and that it took time to collect that data with “multiple companies coming in.”

After additional pressure, Mayor Samuel “Sammy” Moore had acknowledged that he and Township Administrator Maryalice Brown also met with the fire officers about a month before the October session, and they were told at that time of the issues, and it was at his recommendation for the fire department to come talk to the “whole committee.”

Stuart Brooks, however, before the bond was approved, declared, “apparently no one noticed the repair bills” prior to officials being informed of the situation, noting the truck had been “repaired in seven different spots” previously.

“Administrator Brown told me the ch ief keeps her infor med,” Brooks said. “The chief said he knew about the pumper problems. It seems like he keeps her ‘informed’ – not telling her there is a pumper problem.”

Brown had also previously maintained that she was unaware of a purportedly unauthor i zed ar rangement the fire department had made with a local contractor for turning the firehouse parking lot into a storage site last spring and summer, an issue that Brooks, and his wife, Fran, have also continued to pursue over the last couple of months. When the revelation came to light, it caused major controversy in the township.

After asking on a couple of occasions how much the contractor ultimately paid to the township fire department (as

previously reported by this newspaper, the contractor reportedly scoffed at paying the amount the governing body wanted, or retroactive $1,500 payments for the usage), Stuart Brooks said he filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request.

“You got $2,500, which means $6,500 was left on the table,” Stuart Brooks declared.

He also asked the governing body “why it took six months for a failing pumper” to come to the attention of the committee.

“That delay is unacceptable, especially because the Chief’s Report is an item on every agenda,” Stuart Brooks asserted.

“I would like an answer. I think every Tabernacle taxpayer wants answers. I look forward to getting them.”

During a public hearing on the fire truck bond ordinance, Stuart Brooks noted by that point he was asking the “question for the fourth time.”

“I understand trucks don’t last forever,” Stuart Brooks said. “But what I don’t understand is why it took six months for this issue to be brought to the township. The organization does not function well. I don’t understand why the fire department does not talk to Administrator Brown. For this issue to come to you six months later is just not right!”

The tow nsh ip com m itte e, Stuar t Brooks maintained, “should not be in a position to have to respond just like that, instantaneously” to a department’s need, and is only in this position because of “disorganization” and “inefficiency.”

“Do you see this as a problem?” asked Stuart Brooks in pressing officials about what transpired.

Moore responded that the “fire company actually explained it” at a prior session.

The mayor maintained the circumstances were actually “well explained” and that the department had to first “look into these trucks” that it took over from Tabernacle Fire Company #1 and that when it started the process, it “started seeing problems.”

Rather than “jump right on it,” or a request for funding, the department wanted to first “get some answers,” Moore contended, as well as “tried doing research.”

“Then they came to Administrator Brown, and came to us, and then we had a meeting with the fire company,” Moore said. “I think it was well explained.”

Stuart Brooks responded that Moore’s explanation differs “from what the recorded session indicates.” He also put at least some of the blame for the issues on Brown’s schedule, with Brown providing administrator services to both Tabernacle and Woodland townships through a shared services agreement, splitting her time between the two towns, whereas prior administrator Douglas Cramer was “here five days a week.”

“The administrator has to find ways of knowing what is going on in the departments she supervises,” Stuart Brooks declared. “I don’t think she is here enough to do that.”

The transparency advocate maintained he doesn’t even know Brown’s schedule because her “hours are not posted.”

During his response to Stuart Brooks, Moore a lso c al le d the fi refig ht ers comprising the department “professionals,”

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES ♦ Page 5

or “top-notch people.”

Stuart Brooks later maintained “this problem isn’t about volunteerism or fire operations, it is about routine management versus crisis management.”

“Over the past 10 years, this committee (has shown it) is obsessed with fire service management,” Stuart Brooks declared. “It dissolved the fire district, Medford Farms, and fired Tabernacle Fire Company #1, hired a public safety director, and then fired a public safety director, and now

created a fire department. “ Yo u s h o u l d e x p l a i n w hy yo u reorganized five times in the last decade.

Or tell the chief and administrator that the full committee needs to know about important issues as they develop, not on ‘I need it now’ kind of basis.”

For the fire truck bond ordinance, Chief Financial Officer Rodney Haines explained that the bond authorized $688,000 worth of debt, and the township is looking at an See TRUCK/ Page 9

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LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

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Saturday, January 6, 2024

Holding ‘Remarkable’ Distinction of Having Been Mayor of 2 Towns, Harold Griffin Officially Hangs Up His Hat as Pemberton Boro Mayor

After Suffering Broken Hip, Outgoing Mayor Returns to Council Chambers One Final Time Cracking Jokes, Reminiscing About the Past and His Legacy

Photo By Kevin Mulligan

Mayor Harold Griffin chairs his final Pemberton Borough Council meeting.

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON BOROUGH—He holds the “remarkable” distinction of having served as a mayor of not one, but two municipalities.

And now, on the cusp of age 90, he has made his official exit from politics – unless duty calls yet again.

Harold Griffin, when the clock struck midnight Jan. 1, concluded his over nineyear tenure as Pemberton Borough’s mayor, a mayorship that had commenced on Jan. 27, 2014, handing the reins of the borough over to Bonnie Haines, a past GOP council president who ran and later won the open seat, following Griffin’s announcement that he was not going to seek re-election.

It was back in 1965 when Griffin first became a mayor, but in neighboring Pemberton Township.

His journey on how he got to be mayor of two municipalities, was recounted by close friends and the outgoing mayor himself during a Dec. 18 Pemberton Borough Council session, which was Griffin’s last as borough mayor.

Griffin, who revealed during the session that he had broken his hip in the summer and has not yet quite recovered from a fall, made it a point to appear one final time at the dais before his term expired, despite ongoing health challenges.

And while he basked in the limelight – for him, he also seemed to be in his glory, not only having an audience to reminisce about the good times, but more importantly, getting a chance to interact with those he cares the most about: his residents.

Robin Mosher, a for mer borough councilman of 33 years and past council president, as well as a very close friend to the outgoing Republican mayor, recalled that it was in 1985 that he, then-president of the then-Pemberton Borough Board of Education, and Griffin, ran together for seats on the Pemberton Borough Council.

They were elected to the governing body later that year.

According to Mosher, Griffin, when he was younger, lived in the borough on Jarvis Street, but then he moved to a couple different places in Pemberton Township, including having lived for a time on his family farm on Scrapetown Road.

“While living there, Harold was elected not once, but twice to serve as mayor of Pemberton Township,” Mosher recalled.

Griffin then moved back to the borough, Mosher recounted, in the 1970s, having moved into a home on the Rancocas Creek.

“There were a lot of people who had it in their minds that when I moved to the borough, I was going to run for mayor right away,” Griffin said. “But it would probably 10 to 12 years before I was asked to run for council.”

According to Griffin, he served on council for about two years, before becoming the borough’s tax collector.

It was a job that Griffin held onto for 27 years, Mosher said.

One night in 2014, Griffin maintained, when he and his wife were having supper, one of the then-borough councilmembers “said to me the mayor can’t be mayor anymore for some reason” and “we’d like you to do it.”

“I had no idea that I might be mayor again,” Griffin declared. “Little did I know I was going to be mayor for 9 years.”

Mosher called it “quite remarkable that Harold served as mayor of two adjoining towns.”

“And not many people can say that,” he declared, as he presented the outgoing mayor with a “small token of appreciation” for his service – a framed plaque with Griffin’s photo and Pemberton Borough emblem.

Griffin called the gift “beautiful.”

“It has been a joy,” the outgoing mayor said. “Nine years – this last term. And I had the pleasure of being mayor of the township …. I thank the residents for having enough voices to re-elect me so many times, why I will never know.”

But those attending the meeting, knew very well why they had chosen Griffin to serve as mayor. GOP Council President Terry Jerome presented Griffin with a plaque for his “many years of dedicated service, devotion and commitment.”

Resident Karen Mulligan recounted that Griffin was “the first person I met in the borough” after having gone over to the Tax Collector’s Office in trying to sort out her tax bill.

“I was calculating $10,000, and when I came into your office, it wasn’t even $6,000,” she said. “So, you made me very happy.”

Borough Solicitor David Serlin recalled having first met Griffin in 1976. It was when his father-in-law, he said, “suggested I go to my very first municipal meeting.”

“You were the only person to appoint both me and my father-in-law as solicitor in different towns, and I thank you for that, and for providing stability to the borough at a time when it needed it.”

See GRIFFIN/ Page 15

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Project to Bring Electricity to Pinelands Memorial Park Cemetery ‘Tabled for Future Time’ Due to Worries Over Solvency, Rising Costs

But Inflation Was Reason One Committeeman Was Hesitant to Delay Project That Administrator Said Would Allow for Installation of Well, Irrigation System to Help ‘Market’ Gravesite in Dry Weather, Given Criticism About Brown Grass

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

SHAMONG—A planned project to bring electric to a Shamong Townshipowned cemetery to allow for the addition of a well and irrigation system to help both market the gravesite and resolve purported complaints about brown grass when there is summer heat or dry weather conditions is not going to commence for the moment.

It follows a revelation that the cemetery is “not sustaining itself yet” financially, on top of concerns about the municipality already “getting hit on all sides” with other expenses.

Township Administrator and Clerk Susan Onorato appeared to push for the approval on behalf of the Cemetery Board for Pinelands Memorial Park, contending the money was available now, and one committeeperson expressed some concern if the project is put off that costs would only go up from here given ongoing inflation, but the majority of committee remained “leery” of moving ahead.

They decided to re-evaluate the situation in “a few months.”

According to Onorato, from July to September of last year, “it was not looking so pretty” at the “country cemetery” on Willow Grove Road, with the grass there “looking brown.”

Onorato noted that Chief Financial Officer Christina Chambers examined potential funding sources to support the board’s goal of running electricity to the site, and then install the well and irrigation, and located $10,000 from an “original bond.”

“What does it get us?” she asked, before answering that it would pretty much cover the cost of Atlantic City Electric running electric service to the gravesite, noting that the electric company provided a $13,620 estimate to the municipality to run the electric.

But then, according to Onorato, the township would need to purchase an eight-foot by 10-foot shed and have an electrician hook up the power to it in order to “put 200 amp service out there.”

The “lowest cost” Onorato said she could find to have a shed “delivered and

installed” is $2,268, with an estimate for an electrician’s work around $3,600, putting the “end of the day” cost over $19,000. “$10,000 would be covered by initial bond money not spent when we put the cemetery out there, and the rest would come from our op erating budget,” Onorato said.

Having the well drilled is part of a “longer term plan,” she noted, and “then we can lay out irrigation costs.” There was a possibility, she added, of reallocating at least some of what was $25,000 in funds set aside for the initial development of the cemetery.

Having the electricity installed is an initial step, Onorato maintained, and would “also benefit putting the proper lights on a post for the flag” at the gravesite.

Mayor Michael Di Croce asked if the project is eligible for use of Open Space funds. Solicitor Doug Heinold said it would “not fly,” with Onorato agreeing those funds “can’t be used.”

“I am a little leery of spending additional money, especially this year, after getting hit on all sides,” said Di Croce, with the discussion of the gravesite coming off of another discussion about the need to raise some township fees in the new year in several areas to account for rising costs.

“My personal opinion – put it off a little bit, and maybe we will get rain in July.”

That is when Onorato appeared to try to persuade the mayor and committee to go in a different direction, asserting township officials are, “looking at it from a marketing side.”

“We have family members say, ‘Look how bad it looks out there.’,” Onorato said.

Committeeman Brian Woods asked, “How is the cemeter y doing – is it bringing back a return?” The township adm in istrator answered, “It is not sustaining itself yet.”

“Earlier this year, we were not seeing anything,” she said, but rather business did pick up towards the end of the year because, “people plan their lives at the end of the year.”

See CEMETERY/ Page 10

QUERY

(Continued from Page 4) covers “additional police traffic control” and an extension of time given for the project while there was a wait for needed materials to arrive.

After receiving that response, Fields, in appearing to recognize Aromando’s question, noted he is “happy with the end result,” contending the amount due is “a lot less than initially planned.”

Toward the end of the Dec. 13 session, council memorialized appointments and terms to the borough’s Historic Preservation Commission, but as it did, Aromando questioned aloud why some of the terms were written in the resolution to be six or seven years in length (typically appoinments are three to four years, max, and are often one to two years in length).

Miller responded that Aromando “knows the rules,” or that the time for public comment on agenda items had already passed.

McIntosh, a couple minutes later, however, acknowledged there had been an oversight, and that he would go back and correct it for the next meeting. But Aromando demanded to know why council would adopt something that is knowingly incorrect.

When it came time for formal public comment on Dec. 13, the former borough councilman ripped into the officials, including the mayor for a comment reportedly caught on tape at a recent council meeting.

“I could not make the 5 o’clock meeting, as I have working hours I have to keep!”

Aromando declared. “I know that maybe I should do it more often, because mayor, I know you were satisfied I couldn’t make it! I got your comments on the tape requested!”

Aromando then alleged that Miller was caught on tape stating that officials “got through a council meeting” before Aromando showed up. The Pine Barrens Tribune, in obtaining a copy of the audio at issue this past week, learned that the mayor was caught on a hot mic after the meeting had been adjourned saying, “We got out of here before Joe.” The “odd comments,” as Aromando characterized them, are “telling,” or ones that “prove I can’t get a fair shake here.”

“I am disappoi nted!” A romando asserted. “‘Laker Love’ (a phrase officials often cite to portray the borough as being close-knit community) is bunch of crap!”

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES ♦ Page 7 Mi l ler d id not deny mak i ng the alleged comments, nor did he address the allegations.

Aromando, in raising the issue of the borough’s tree ordinance, which officials had previously vowed to review several years ago now, sarcastically proclaimed that council might as well “skip a year and go to 2025!”, causing Miller to respond that the “sarcasm” wasn’t necessary.

“This started in 2020 when a group of people on Zoom thought you were going to do something right,” Aromando said. “We are a wooded community with a problem.

The response has been to allow three years to go by without any conclusions. … It is an insult to those people. We still have a tree problem.”

While there is a general policy, according to the former borough councilman, that trees removed need to be replaced, “there is still no authority” for Code Enforcement to mandate such plantings.

“It is not codified,” he maintained.

“Nothing has been done.”

In a topic Aromando raised in the past, he also pointed to borough code addressing Right-of-Way widths, including requiring that property owners should “keep shoulders and berms” free of obstructions and “not place rocks there,” but he charged that violations are “rampant around here.”

“Why is nothing being done about it?” he asked council.

Aromando also maintained that some residents are creating new driveways and curb cuts that are “totally illegal,” with him continuing that the Municipal Land Use Ordinance specifies that residential properties should only have one curb cut.

“These are rules we paid other solicitors and other councils to make,” Aromando declared. “If you don’t like them, (repeal them) and make it a free for all, or make it look like Browns Mills, like it does when this crap happens, and you start getting rid of them!” the former borough councilman declared. “But, if they are on the books, then someone better start doing something about them!”

Aromando accused the council of engaging in “malfeasance,” and it was at that point that Miller cut Aromando short, maintaining, “I think you made your point.”

While Aromando’s questions and points went unaddressed on Dec. 13, his tirade ultimately brought about an explanation from Heinold as to why he and Miller had been seemingly terse with him earlier in the See QUERY/ Page 13

Page 8

♦

EVENT CALENDAR

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Details: South Jersey Coin and Collectable Show will be held Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Moose Lodge, 2425 White Horse Pike (Rt. 30), Lindenwold.

Admission is free. There will be free door prizes, food and refreshments, over 30 dealer tables, as well as free parking.

The show will be held on the first Sunday of each month during 2024. Dealers wanted! Security provided. For more information, call Tom at 609-742-2279, or visit southjerseycoinshow.com .

Details: Come out to the Wild Con Comic Book Show on Saturday, Jan. 13, at the Wildwood Convention Center, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Convention Center is located on the Boardwalk at 4501 Boardwalk, Wildwood. The show will feature guests, artists, vendors and cosplayers! Admission is $10 for adults and free for children under 12. For more information, please call 609-242-7756, or visit jerseyshorecomicbookshow.com .

Details: In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Mt. Holly Friends are hosting an Open-Mic day, Monday, Jan. 15, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Mt. Holly Friends Meetinghouse, 81 High St., Mt. Holly. All are welcome to come share your thoughts, writings, poetry and music at this free event!

Light refreshments will be served. For more information, please contact mthollyfriends@ gmail.com, or call 609-670-7625.

HALL

(Continued from Page 1) Gone, for now, are immediate plans to build a community room separate from a committee meeting room, as well as municipal court facilities, though the new plan maintains a footprint for such facilities as sort of a “plug-in” should they ever need to be added in the future.

Shortly after the new plan was publicly revealed for the first time, which evidently came as a surprise to residents attending a Nov. 27 committee session and drew some criticism for being on short notice, the governing body approved on second reading an $8 million bond ordinance “for the construction of a municipal building.”

Residents also learned on the evening of Nov. 27 that a planned new Public Work s fa c i l it y a l so slat e d for 14 4 Carranza Road may not be built together with the new municipal building, but rather has been pushed off until “Phase II” of the project.

It was only after residents pressured officials to describe the potential costs and tax impacts that some rough estimates were provided on some items, but a question that officials evaded answering so far during the Nov. 27 session, as well as at subsequent December meetings, is how much any site plan work is anticipated to cost.

Engineer Scott England, in revealing

on Nov. 27 a “more modest plan” for the new town hall, described that “this plan here is essentially creating a town hall function with a combined community/ committee meeting room” and that the new building would also have “no court function now.” Yet, the plan contains footprints “allowing future expansion at a later date.”

“This plan ended up being around 8,500 square-feet, so it is considerably smaller, and, of course, a less expensive, smaller building,” England declared. “There are some pros and cons.”

A proposed “shared space,” designed to serve as both a community room and meeting room for the township committee, is planned for having 120 regular seats, England pointed out.

The main difference between what is being proposed now versus what was being proposed (and had actually been formally OK’d by the committee earlier in 2023) earlier last year is “square-footage,” according to England.

England showed Nov. 27 meeting attendees two versions of the latest plan with differences, with the latter essentially “flipping the building over” from what was previously drawn up, and placing the shared meeting room on the left side, instead of the right. The intent of doing this, England explained, is to address comments received “to make the building more visible from the main drive down.”

“It is the same building, except the meeting room is on the left,” contended England, with the drawing labeling that meeting space “community-meeting room.”

England, during his presentation, did not provide any estimated or hard total costs for the project, but did reveal the “approximate cost differential between the two plans” is about $2 million.

Tow n sh ip Eng i ne er Tom L eis s e, following England’s presentation, showed what the new rendering of the building looked like on a new site plan. Changes to the site plan, he maintained, were subtle, simply adding an “additional emergency eg ress” and remov ing a plan for recreational amenities at 144 Carranza Road, including a “running track.” The new site plan also reflects efforts of officials, according to Leisse, to “try to smooth out” the “turn” of the entrance to the planned complex.

A major concern heard at past townhall style sessions arranged to discuss municipal building plan updates – an arrangement notably not advertised in advance of this latest unveiling – was the impacts such a complex would bring about to surrounding property owners.

In recognizing the “concern with the residents around there,” Committeeman William J. Sprague, Jr. asked, “Have they been addressed?”

“They can be addressed, further into the design, by landscape design and fencing,”

Leisse replied. “But we are not that far into the design to address that just yet.”

Committeeman Noble McNaughton, in reacting to the latest unveiling, declared that he “likes” the concept of the “committee meeting room to the left.”

“As far as a (separate) community room to the right, I see less and less need for this,” McNaughton further declared.

“That money should be put towards redoing town hall, and making it into some sort of a community center.”

McNaughton is referring to the existing town hall building at 163 Carranza Road, which has been shuttered since early 2022 after England and his team found that the facility is structurally compromised and could no longer handle the intended occupancy/usage load.

O f fi c i a l s h ave s h i e d away f ro m renovating the existing town hall for municipal operations usage, maintaining required state standards such as adding a sprinkler system and elevator shaft are too cost prohibitive, and that the fullextent of the inner wall conditions is not known. Additionally, officials have claimed that even after any repair, the upstairs of the facility, which has served as a committee meeting room, is not rated to handle such a load.

However, in early 2023, in presenting a plan that would turn the former town See HALL/ Page 9

Saturday, January 6, 2024

HALL

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(Continued from Page 8) hall into a community center and Village Greene, in response to com mun ity concerns about the need to protect a historic building, officials expressed optimism that the building could be repurposed for light community usage on primarily the ground floor without having to be required to add fire and access systems.

In pointing to the latest plan for the new municipal complex at 144 Carranza Road, McNaughton asserted, “I think that plan fits the township much better.”

“It gives us an opportunity to save money and put it towards old town hall,” McNaughton said.

McNaughton also expressed that he was pleased that the new plan “saves a lot of money” by “not having a courtroom,” poi nti ng to requ i rements that i f a township maintains a courtroom, it must bolt down any seats in the courtroom as well as have special rooms, including a judge’s chamber.

“Right now, we are using Medford Lakes (through a shared services agreement for municipal court services), and the majority of people who come to court do it via Zoom (a change in the process for court hearings established following the Coronavirus pandemic),” McNaughton explained. “So, it is not like we need a big courtroom anymore, either. So, I can’t see a need for that courtroom.”

If anything, McNaughton maintained, he sees a future in which “more people will be going to court on a computer,” and therefore, “the need for that courtroom I don’t think is there.”

Sprague, following the presentation, asked officials what the next step is in the process, with Brown answering that the new floor plan requires governing body approval, so Leisse can finalize the new site plan. Then, assuming approval, the plans would be taken to the Pinelands Commission for comments and approval.

How e v e r, b e fo r e t h e t ow n s h i p committee could give its approval to the new concepts, the meeting was opened to the public for comments on what had just been presented.

St u a r t Bro ok s , b ot h a r e s i d e nt and local advocate for transparency, expressed the new plans were “totally a surprise,” maintaining he didn’t even see word about the presentation listed on the township website, with Brown rebutting that the presentation was listed in an agenda for the Nov. 27 evening session.

Mayor Samuel “Sammy” Moore offered a confirmation that the presentation was listed in the agenda.

“Good for you!” Brooks shot back. “The amount of public participation allowed has been so damn small, it is just shameful!

I don’t have questions, and I can’t really examine a presentation after just five minutes. I like what I heard, that you are eliminating the courtroom, and making the building more visible. But, really, it is just such an unannounced proposal.”

The “very little” opportunity given for the public to comment on the planning process, Brooks maintained, “gives me little confidence you know what you are doing.”

Brooks also questioned why these plans had even been created, months after the

governing body had already taken formal action to approve a floor plan and site plan for the municipal complex, contending he believed the governing body was “way out of sequence on this” and “really shorted the public on this,” something he characterized as “outrageous.”

Brooks remarks caused Brown to explain that while “the floor plan was originally approved” because she had to get an estimate and once England started the estimation process, officials “realized” what had been intended was “out of the ballpark.”

Given no public mention, however, up until Nov. 27 that the project had come in over an intended spending range and that the professionals were asked to come up with additional drawings, Brooks declared officials “never took it to the public sphere.”

“Here you are, on the eve of an $8 million bond, and I have no idea where you are on this,” Brooks quipped.

Brow n agai n mai nt ai ne d the modifications came about when there was a realization what had been proposed was “too expensive” and contended it was modified when “Mr. (Tom) Boyd (township construction official) and I sat down and saw where the extra was.”

When Fran Brooks, the wife of Stuart and also a transparency advocate in Tabernacle, however, suggested that the initial plan was potentially “examined in the backroom” for modifications, it prompted Brown to respond that she “can assure you there was no meeting in a group.”

“Maybe you then have a daisy chain, but whatever you are doing, you are not bringing information to the public!” Fran Brooks shot back.

Fran Brooks further slammed officials for asking the public to come up with questions on the eve of the bond “spontaneously,” further declaring, “the new plan doesn’t have a number attached to it!”

“We are tapped out, and you got us into this (Committeewoman) Ms. (Kim) Brown, (Former Committeeman) Mr. (Jos e ph) Ba r ton a nd Mr. Moore!” declared Fran Brooks, referring to the three individuals’ votes several years back against purchasing the for mer Tab e r n a c l e s c ho ol hou s e t h at w a s the home of the Sequioa Alternative Program, a vote that came about when there had been initial non-structural issues raised with the current town hall, and a belief the old schoolhouse could be converted to new facilities for the town – with the schoolhouse now in the hands of a private entity.

In continuing to excoriate officials, Fran Brooks maintained “the fact remains that there has been no financial cost analysis of having a court or not having court” locally and that there has been “no number discussed” by either presenter as to an “actual cost” to flip the planned building versus not doing so.

“Clearly, you folks should have some idea, and basically you should be able to put numbers before us, as to what the tax increases would be, but you don’t want to do that because you don’t want a revolution!” Fran Brooks declared. “It is just wrong and bad policymaking!”

Mark LeMire, the township’s GOP chair man in a municipality that is See HALL/ Page 11

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES ♦ Page 9

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

Drivers attempt to navigate floodwaters on Mill Street in Southampton on Dec. 18.

FLOOD

(Continued from Page 3) and stop, concerned not only about safety, but the wakes that were being generated.

On Main Street, large tree branches sat atop the thoroughfare, having been apparently pushed onto it by the floodwaters.

One man, at 38 Main Street, had to evacuate his farm animals as floodwaters overtook his property. Some were moved to higher ground on the property, while others were moved to the second floor of a barn. Having moved into the home three years ago, it was his first flood there, he told this newspaper.

Southampton Emergency Management Coordinator Eamonn Fitzpatrick-Ruth reported that the South Branch of the Rancocas Creek in Southampton “entered minor flood stage,” causing floodwaters to rise to about 2 feet in Vincentown and 4 feet on East Mae Avenue, before the creek crested.

At the height of the event, according to Fit z p at r i ck-Rut h, s i x roa d s i n Southampton were closed.

Two residences were sandbagged, as well as the Vincentown pump station, but the

TRUCK

(Continued from Page 5) approximate 4 percent interest rate, with the fire truck considered a 10-year asset. The current market is selling bonds at 3.5 percent, he noted, but predicting the future rates is something he could not do, quipping, “If I had a crystal ball, I could make a lot of money.”

But he anticipated, at this moment, about $85,000 worth of debt per year for the expenditure. The impact to the tax rate, he said, will be approximately 1.2 cents, though it is possible that some of that could be negated by “finding a savings elsewhere.” On 1.2 cents, he noted, it equates to a $12 increase in taxes for a home assessed at $100,000, though he did not specify on what frequency basis.

Fran Brooks estimated that the township could be looking at somewhere between $12 and $14 million in debt accumulation, and returned to the governing body not purchasing the former Sequioa Alternative Program building, and now, as a result, having to bond on the same night $8 million to construct a new town hall (see separate story).

The township also bonded $950,000 for a new fire truck in 2022.

measure was “precautionary only.”

He pointed to some voluntary evacuations in Southampton, with Burlington County Spokesman David Levinsky, in passing on information from Burlington County OEM, saying there were a total of four voluntary evacuations in Southampton – all residents of East Mae Avenue.

Levinsky also pointed out there were rainfall reports of 3.35 inches in New Gretna and 5.42 inches in Medford.

Scott Mitchell, chief of the Vincent Fire Company, based in Vincentown, declared, “We did not have to use the boat,” however, with Fitzpatrick-Ruth reporting there were “no deaths, rescues or injuries – none of that.”

“It was mostly low impact – helping residents move animals, alarm systems and things like that,” said Mitchell of the situation in Southampton.

However, according to Committeeman Ron Heston, two homes in Southampton took on floodwaters, one that had a reported 3 feet in its basement, and another in which the “ground floor flooded.”

The area is forecast to be hit by at least two additional significant storms within the next two weeks, with nearly an inch of rain having fallen a week after the preChristmas flood.

In calling out those who voted against purchasing the former Sequioa building, Fran Brooks declared, “they are responsible for over $14 million in unnecessary debt and significant tax increases.”

“Your inability to run this township properly is shameful!” she declared.

It is believed that the township committee may have to bond again to do intended improvements to current town hall that has been shuttered, and recently, there has been talk of potentially several future phases for the municipal building project, though nothing has been written out.

Fran Brooks, at one point recently, not only asked Haines about the tax impact of the debt, but also, “How much more can we be indebted before we reach the max for the debit limit?”

“With the debt we proposed this evening, approximately, as of today, we could borrow an additional $8 million,” Haines said. “But again, this is just debt on paper; it is not actual money we have to pay back until we actually borrow and sell bonds, which is somewhat in the future.”

It won’t be until 2029, he noted, that $485,000 in debt “will fall off the books.” In the meantime, Haines vowed the township will “only borrow what it truly needs.”

Page 10 ♦

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

CEMETERY

(Continued from Page 3) As of December, Onorato estimated a total of 53 plots had been sold at the 6.26acre cemetery. Back in early 2019, that figure was 14, per a column that Di Croce had written at the time. Shamong opened the cemetery in 2018, after nearly 20 years of planning, with hopes it would not only give locals a nice, convenient option to be laid to rest at, but be a revenue source to the town.

In the mayor’s column, Di Croce identified there being “the goal of selling 500 plots in the cemetery for 2019.”

He also discussed Phase I “includes approximately 2,000 grave sites, and a 48 niche columbarium for cremated remains.”

Upon hearing of the cemetery’s latest figures, Di Croce suggested officials “should host a luncheon” and “have all the morticians and churches come in,” so that it is “uppermost” in their minds.

“We figured this is a way to use the bond money,” said Onorato, believing the key to successfully market the gravesite is to make strides in having it look green.

“Between the bond and operating budget

FEES

(Continued from Page 4) to have been assessed in 2017 in 2023, Mikulski maintained, “we were told there was opposition,” with a “claim the ordinance was not drafted clearly” to say when the increase from the 2016 rate to the 2017 one “was supposed to go into effect.”

“Rather than fight that, we didn’t change anything, we just made it what it was supposed to be,” said Mikulski, maintaining the fee structure set in 2013 is what he was told was the “going rate in 2013.”

The man by the name of Anthony, however, returned to his original question, contending it wasn’t answered about what the fees “are actually for.”

“The same thing the rest of us, who pay property taxes, pay for – the same services the township provides to all residents,” Mikulski answered. “It goes up every year, yours hasn’t.”

It was a Mobile Estates resident by the name of Debbie who questioned, “What ‘services?’”

“We are a private park,” she said. “You don’t come in, you don’t plow … you don’t do anything for us. What ‘services?’”

The mayor answered that query by pointing to ambulance and fire services “that we all pay for, as a township, collectively.”

The woman shot back that the landlord pays “property taxes for those kinds of things,” prompting Mikulski to maintain “the owner of the home park pays property taxes for the land and structure.”

The mayor’s answer led the woman to declare that the landlord “already takes that out of our rent” and had “significantly upped our rent” because of recent tax increases.

“I can’t speak to what he did,” the mayor initially told the woman.

It would be one thing, the woman contended, if the township plowed the streets in the park, as well as removed hazardous trees there, in addition to providing ongoing park maintenance, “but you are not providing us the services you would, like if we would pay taxes.”

It caused the mayor to acknowledge that indeed, the township is “not providing the same

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this year, we have enough to cover it.”

As for the lights to keep the flag and flagpole lit on site, Di Croce asked, “How about using solar lights?”

Onorato replied that with winter having “shorter nights,” it “doesn’t look as well,” causing Di Croce to quip, “I go by there, and it looks like a cemetery.”

A resident also chimed in from her seat that “solar is cheaper,” but Onorato shot back, “I don’t know if it is enough.”

But the township administrator was again rebuffed, this time by Martin Mozitis (who was still deputy mayor by this point, before leaving his term on Dec. 31), who proclaimed, at the rate they are “shutting down coal plants,” the U.S. is “going to live off solar.”

“Solar will work on everything, except the pump,” Di Croce contended.

But it is the “pump that draws” electricity, Onorato noted, with Committeeman Chris Zehnder remarking that three-phase electricity would “probably” be needed “for that size irrigation” system planned.

Mozitis pointed to the cost to irrigate the Dingletown Sports Complex, and then maintained one is “looking at a very large yearly cost,” noting it will entail winterization, fixing heads, and

maintenance agreements, just like what is necessary at Dingletown.

But Zehnder maintained what is needed at the cemetery isn’t to the degree of what is needed at Dingletown because the gravesite “doesn’t have to be turf.”

“I respect the sentiment of fiscal responsibility,” Zehnder said. “But I think as costs go up, construction costs will double.”

H o w e v e r, Z e h e n d e r s u g g e s t e d discussing the issue “in a few months,” and that is when Onorato again attempted to persuade the governing body to take a different course of action, remarking she would “have to get new prices on everything” if there is a delay.

“I would like to learn more about the cemetery, and what do we need to do to get it to solvency, and a return on investment,” Woods said.

Mozitis, at one point, noted that someone in town has a windmill that pumps a lot of electricity.

“How much does that cost?” Di Croce asked. “We could ask. My feelings are I am a bit leery, and I don’t want to get to point to raise taxes on people, at least for something like this.”

The item was tabled “for a future time.”

services” to the mobile home park residents as in other parts of the township, “but taxes would be dramatically higher” if the township, for instance, was providing the mobile home park with trash collection services.

According to the township website, there are approximately 325 units in Mobile Estates, with a population of 700 people.

“I am not trying to minimize the increase to those of you having to pay it,” Mikulski said. “I understand any increase is not good.”

When the woman described that most of the mobile home park’s tenants are living on fixed incomes, Mikulski said he “understands” their plight because he hears the “same thing every year” from others in the community who are “on fixed incomes, too.” (The township’s two mobile home communities, however, are considered the most impoverished sections of the township.)

It was pointed out to the mayor, by the woman, that Social Security payouts are due to rise by 3 percent for 2024, but this rent increase, on top of the one earlier in the fall, is “now going to take the rest of it.”

“We don’t have anything to do with lot rents,” Mikulski maintained. “We just raised it (the mobile home fees) to what it should be … we raised it back to what it is supposed to be.”

(There is no known hard requirement, however, that the township committee has to raise mobile home fees to match the going rate, and the township committee can, if it wishes to, repeal any scheduled, or previously set fee increase by prior governing bodies, also by ordinance.)

The woman, in calculating what the rates generate in revenue to the township, noted that “it is going to be $100,000 a year (approximately $118,300).”

“What services are we really provided for $100,000, other than if we have a fire or need an ambulance?” she asked.

Again, Mikulski maintained in response, “we can’t speak to what the rent gets raised,” but the woman shot back, “the rent gets raised when taxes get raised,” or in this case, when the fee is increased.

“That tax has not gone up on rental space

for mobile homes since 2017,” Mikulski responded. “It was supposed to, it didn’t.”

Township Administrator and Clerk Kathleen D. Hoffman, in suggesting the landlord may have already accounted for the fee increase previously in rent charges, asserted, “What did he do with that money since 2017?”

And Committeeman Ronald Heston expressed his curiosity as to whether any of the recent increases in fees and taxes, as described by the renters, reflects the landlord “adding any more to it.”

When the woman maintained past rent increases, including $25 in November, were blamed on rising “taxes,” both Mikulski and Hoffman vigorously denied that the local purpose taxes were raised for a recent stretch of “four or five years” (though they have been raised slightly the past two years), and as Mikulski acknowledged, the school taxes “could have” gone up (at the regional school district level, for the 2023-24 school year, they went up by $82.24 on a home assessed at the township average of $309,768, while on the local school district level, they decreased by $0.0007 cents, or by $2.61 per year on a home assessed at the average).

“Like I said, on Social Security, we are getting a 3 percent increase for the cost of living, and we are not even getting any of

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it,” the woman declared.

Yet again, the mayor repeated a claim that the governing body had simply authorized in November an “increase that should have been in place since 2017.”

Another Mobile Estates resident, in approaching the dais, asserted, “I want to how come you can charge every trailer the same rate?”

“My trailer, built in 1989, is falling apart and the guy next to me is paying the same as me?!” he declared.

Mikulski responded homes are taxed the “same way,” with a home built in 1942 charged the same as one in 2023. But the resident essentially pointed out that homes are assessed, before a tax bill is issued for one, asking, “Don’t you have an appraiser that goes around and looks?”

“It is the blind leading the blind,” the man declared. “All the same, by a long shot. I think that it is stupid!”

Before the meeting concluded, about 15 minutes later, Committeeman James F. Young, Sr., a former mayor of 25 years who served in the mayoral post back in 2013, in circling back to Mobile Estates, asked, “Don’t we educate the children in there?”

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(Continued from Page 9) absolute Republican controlled, who has expressed some concerns previously about the plan to build a new town hall, in responding to the presentation, said he “liked it moved over” and that “if you are going to spend any amount of money, regardless of what it is, it (the building) should at least be visible.”

However, he noted that he hasn’t “really heard anything” about a timeline for the project, including when officials might break ground.

“How aggressive?” he asked. “12 months or 60 months? I think it is very important to make that clear.”

All Leisse would say, however, is that the plans first have to be approved by the Pinelands Commission, and also by the Burlington County Planning Board, with Maryalice Brown adding both entities are “anticipating it” and “know it is coming.”

“They know time is of the essence,” the township administrator declared.

Fran Brooks, however, returned to the lack of hard figures on costs, maintaining “this is all part of a lack of systematic exposure of information to the public about issues that are extremely expensive, that engender huge costs to the taxpayers.”

“Maybe you as individuals, who are residents of Tabernacle, say, ‘Oh, that is just my individual tax increase, but you are not looking at the entire township that is going to have to bear the cost for some really bad decision-making that has

been made and you continue to repeat that decision making, because you never want to talk to the public about it! We would be less inflamed if you would talk to us, and part with information!”

Resident Tyler Mann, in picking up on a point that seemingly was simply mentioned in passing that the Public Works faci l ity would no longer be included in the initial phase of the project, questioned officials as to the timeline for construction of that facility.

H i s qu e s t ion c au s e d Brow n t o acknowledge “Public Works is considered Phase II” as the township “could not afford it all at one time.” Mann then asked if the $8 million bond included funding for the Public Works facility, with Chief Financial Officer Rodney Haines replying that he “believes” from seeing the plans for the site work that it “includes the Public Works garage.”

England, in response to the continued public questioning, ultimately revealed that the original building was going to cost the township $6.5 to $7.5 million, and it is his belief the smaller one will come in somewhere between $4.5 and $5.5 million, excluding the site plan work.

But since Nov. 27, the Brooks have sought answers at December township com m itte e me eti ngs about the site plan cost, but haven’t gotten much of anywhere with their requests. Initially, Leisse said he provided that information before, but didn’t have it with him.

Then, when the Brooks followed up in December, Maryalice Brown said she “didn’t have that with me this evening,” while Leisse said the estimated cost was

“provided to the architect, which was provided to the committee.”

LeMire, who also questioned whether the Public Works garage would not be included in the initial phase, received a response from Moore that amenities for that department would be built “in phases.”

“It is not hard to lay that out,” responded LeMire, calling for the specific phases, and what they include, as well as the approximate cost to be written out, in addition to a timeline for them. “It adds a level of transparency.”

Telling the public “here is our five year plan,” the GOP chairman maintained, “is not a heavy lift, even if you don’t have exact numbers.”

But when it came time for the bond ordinance hearing on Nov. 27, Sprague sought figures for the potential tax impact of the bond.

Hai nes cautioned that there was some uncertainty because it depends on whether the state’s local government finance board will allow the municipality to “push out” the sell date for the bond to 2029, as intended. Still, between the $8 million bond and another to finance a firetruck purchase, Haines estimated taxes would increase $27 to $30 on a home assessed at $100,000, though the chief financial officer did not elaborate on the frequency for that increase.

When Township Solicitor William Burns, however, suggested one would “only” be “talking about $100 assuming the township can push the principle off on the building,” Fran Brooks shot back that she would not be as “flippant about tax increases.”

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES ♦ Page 11 “Maybe from your pocket it is ‘only’ $100, but a lot of people struggle (to get that)!” Fran Brooks declared.

Stuart Brooks agreed with LeMire that it is “not a heavy lift to write down numbers” and that “information goes a long way to build trust.”

But in seemingly highlighting the continued planning concerns and lack of definitives, at one point Sprague questioned whether a farmhouse at 144 Carranza Road could be temporarily retrofitted into municipal offices, to alleviate continued rental of temporary construction trailers (with a three-year lease coming due soon for renewal) and officials couldn’t say whether that is or isn’t a possibility, with Maryalice Brown noting, “I don’t think that has been explored at all.”

Leisse raised concerns with accessibility for the handicapped, and parking, and Maryalice Brown and Burns noted the township doesn’t yet own 144 Carranza Road and there is an active lease with a tenant between the current property owner until July, but McNaughton maintained, “we should at least look at it.”

24-year Committeewoman Brown, in the only remarks on the topic of late and in what would be her final ones as an elected official given her term expired Dec. 31, cautioned her colleagues to consider the “cost of doing things now, versus waiting,” given inflation, a point that seemed to raise the concern of some of the public over the potential delay in Public Works facilities.

The latest floor and site plan approval vote, as well as on bonding for $8 million, were all unanimous.

Page 12 ♦

WORSHIP GUIDE

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the aircraft,” as well as the maintenance history of the aircraft.

So far, Gunther said of the weather conditions on the evening of the crash that it was a “clear, cold night.”

Records involving the aircraft’s fatal flight, and the previous flights, will also

be looked at, with Gunther revealing that Chopper 6 was in flight three separate times on the day of the crash.

He anticipated a preliminary crash report to be released within 15 days, and that the investigation will take 18 months to fully complete. Up to two months

after the release of the final report, the five-member, appointed Safety Board will “release a statement of probable cause,” and in the meanwhile, if there is something found that is cause of concern to the public or aviation industry, the board “can release recommendations at any time.”

of allowing people to go over in terms of time limits.”

Heinold maintained the treatment of Aromando on Dec. 13 is “not personal” but that officials “have a job to do up here” at the dais, and because a “record is being kept” of the proceedings, as well as “minutes are being taken,” it boils down to “all that needs to be clear.”

“Whether there is one person or 50 in the room, our job is to protect that process,” Heinold declared.

Aromando, during the subsequent Dec. 27 session, persisted in asking why council voted to adopt the resolution setting the

commission members’ terms, even though it was “something not correct” at the time (it was ultimately amended Dec. 27).

“It troubles me,” Aromando said.

“There is something wrong with doing that. Either you don’t care, or you have an attitude about somebody correcting you, but it should not have happened! I am disappointed with the way we are handling some of this stuff.”

He also continued asking about whether the tree commission would be providing a recommendation for a new tree law, with Borough Manager Dr. Robert Burton responding the body would be “meeting

in the new year – in January.”

The former councilman then pointed to “seriously dead branches in the park” that he “pointed out months ago,” and yet, he has “not seen anything done with them.”

McIntosh attributed the delay in remediating the issue to having to coordinate with three parties, including that “specialized” lights would have to be removed from the trees and require use of a neighboring town’s ladder truck to do so, before a tree service can move in to perform trimming.

“When a branch comes down, it could be deadly,” Aromando said. “That is not good.”

Page 14 ♦

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BUSINESS DIRECTORY ♦ Page 15

Local BUSINESS & SERVICE DIRECTORY

PLUMBING & HVAC

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LIST

(Continued from Page 3) expected life of that equipment.”

In other words, “something that we can use to determine and plan, ‘OK, this equipment in two years is going to be obsolete, let’s work on it now.’”

“Everything has a lifetime to it,”

GRIFFIN

(Continued from Page 6) Councilman Steven Fenster, particularly when he was on the other side of the dais as a resident, had gotten into some heated exchanges with Griffin during his borough mayoral tenure.

But Fenster, a Democrat, acknowledged the “borough had issues with the budget” when Griffin first took office and believed it was “you who straightened it out.”

“We have not had the drastic issues like we had 9 years ago,” Fenster asserted.

“Thank you.”

Griffin, as became evident during the session, had impacts on some in the room, beyond the political world – in their personal lives. With Mosher having

P.O. Box 311 Medford, N.J. 08055 Robert H. Griscom Fully Insured NJTC768766

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Keith Abrams Lic# 1283

McNaughton said. “We need to know what it is so we can help you out. I think we should be aware.”

Committeeman William J. Sprague, Jr. called it “a great idea,” maintaining the committee should get monthly equipment reports detailing the condition of each piece of apparatus.

With the fire department “probably the most important thing in the township,”

Sprague asserted, “the committee should have more access to what is going on.”

A motion to make a budget transfer of $20,000 was initially approved, and then a second motion to proceed with the repair was OK’d by the committee, 4-0 (outgoing Committeewoman Kim Brown was absent for this set of votes).

Later, a representative of the fire company expressed that the agency was

“very appreciative” of the increase to allow for the full repairs and that “we do have a 10-year plan that goes over life expectancy.”

“We will make sure you guys have that,” the representative declared, noting the department would collect lifetime dates for all its equipment and “definitely get something together so you guys have an idea. ”

described that Griffin, a 1952 graduate of the “old Pemberton High School” had gone on to work as a guidance counselor at Pemberton Township High School, Jerome pointed out “Mayor Gr iffin was my guidance counselor during my tenure at Pemberton High School.

“From then till now, thank you,” declared Jerome, prompting Griffin to share stories of how he advocated for the youth he was responsible for during his time at the high school, a day job he ultimately retired from.

Griffin also made a point that he has “worked well” with the councilmembers du r i ng h i s t e nu r e, p r a i s i ng t h e i r responsiveness.

“They all responded,” Griffin said.

“They have always taken care. A mayor can’t do everything, and if he can delegate

things, it is a lot easier. Most of the time when I call somebody on the phone and say, ‘take care of this,’ it is taken care of. I really appreciate that. I am going to tell you the truth – when I call you on the phone and say a certain street needs paving, a sidewalk needs fixing, or there is a pothole, I expect it is taken care of, and that I don’t have to come back to it again. All these things were taken care of without me having to go back and taking care of it myself, before I had to get involved.”

In appearing to provide his successor with some departing advice, Griffin further asserted, “some people think I should have been more involved in more things, but I don’t agree with that – I try to delegate things to each council member and things work out better.”

Griffin, in recounting his time in the township, made it a point to the tell the audience that of the current municipal building on Pemberton-Browns Mills Road, “we put it there,” as well as the “ballfields.”

“We did all that during my term,” he said.

Griffin, before adjourning his last meeting as borough mayor, declared, “I will be 90 years old in January, and I am not sure whether that is old or not – I have one group of people that tells me 90 is old, and then I got another group of people here tonight that tell me that 90 is really not that old.”

One woman in the audience shot back, “I am 90, that is ‘old!’”

After an additional wisecrack, “The first time I was elected to council, I actually meant to do it,” Griffin concluded, “I enjoyed serving you and I am going to miss it.”

Page 16 ♦

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