TAXES

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Thomas Sherwood Says He Was Unaware of Excessive Noise Due to Impaired Hearing; Claims

Wanted to Buy Bass River School as Gift for Town, but Missed Opportunity

what they’re paying for? This budget should have been introduced no later than March 31 –that makes tonight’s introduction more than 100 days overdue.”

To make matters worse, he contended that “the township is now subject to statutory penalties from the State of New Jersey,” and asked the council members whether they were aware of what those penalties might be and whether they were expecting taxpayers to pick up the tab, as well as wanting to know “the reasons for this delay, exactly.”

“I look forward to your responses,” he added.

While no one endeavored to explain why the township had gone so far beyond the deadline for presenting a budget, Davidson was asked by Mayor Jaclyn “Jackie” Veasy if he could “advise the resident if we’re being fined right now for not introducing our budget” in a timelier manner, to which he replied, “the state has not levied any fine for the late introduction of the budget as of now.”

As for how that tax money is spent, according to the CFO, the average Evesham property tax bill in 2022 was $8,300, with education making up “the largest slice of that by far,” local schools accounting for 40 percent followed closely by regional school costs at 25 percent.

By Bill B onvie

Staff Writer

BASS RIVER—The owner of Tom’s Retreat says he is every bit as desirous of being a good neighbor as he is of being a good citizen.

To that end, he would like to not just offer his apologies to property owners living near the Route 9 estate for the noise created by events sponsored by his nonprofit foundation that were intended to benefit and entertain surviving veterans of America’s decades-old conflict in Vietnam, but to bring them on board as supporters of, and perhaps even participants in, its charitable endeavors.

“I am there to do something good – even for my neighbors,” Thomas Sherwood told the Pine Barrens Tribune in a July 25 phone interview, adding that he only had the best of intentions in staging events on the property he purchased at the beginning of 2018, and noting that the last such event, which helped observe New Jersey’s “Run for the Fallen,” had benefited veterans’ causes to the tune of $20,000, half of which he and his family had donated. He conceded, however, “but that doesn’t give me the right to make too much noise.”

Despite some of the remarks that various individuals have made on social media in regard to the residents who complained about his foundation’s events to the Bass River Board of Commissioners at its July meeting, Sherwood said he is not only willing to accept the criticism directed at those activities and tone them down in the future, but eager to extend an olive branch to the people those activities disturbed.

The explanation he offered for the two previous events on the 250-acre walled enclave, the first of which of he acknowledged lasted until 2 a.m. when the New Jersey State Police asked that it be curtailed, is that he himself didn’t realize just how noisy they were, due to having had his hearing impaired by an injury suffered in combat while he himself was serving in Vietnam.

That’s why he has now ordered a device to measure the decibel levels from any future activities at the retreat, which he described as similar to one a neighbor said she had used to show excessive noise being generated at the previous function, although no more events have been scheduled there after the one set to take place July 29 until an observance of the annual National Vietnam War Veterans Day on March 29 of next year.

The 78-year-old Sherwood, whose regular residence is in New Hope, Pa. (Tom’s Retreat being maintained by several live-in caretakers, who were also employed by the previous owner) and who earlier this year had triple bypass surgery, also claimed he had his eye on another local property last year – the now-vacant former Bass River Elementary School that has been a source of considerable consternation since being purchased at auction by a Lakewood-based developer with purported plans to turn it into a yeshivah, a seminary for orthodox Jewish students.

Once having become aware that the property had been put on the market, Sherwood said he

See VETS/ Page 13

What is left – that is, the municipal share of the property taxes – only amounts to about 14 percent of the total property tax bill, he noted, “but it impacts 100 percent of our residents” who depend on services like the DPW, trash collection and the police.

Also approved on first reading was a capital improvements ordinance that, as Davidson described it, reappropriated funds intended for projects already completed, putting the monies toward new ones, with a total capital budget of approximately $5 million, the same amount as last year.

The expenditures involved, which are for short-term “pay as you go” needs, cover such items as five new police cruisers, one side-loading automated trash truck, two tandem axle dump trucks that “are imperative for snowplowing operations,” a brine truck, and multiple pickup/ mini dump trucks. Also part of the capital improvement package are $1,085,000 worth of facility improvements, including the completion of HVAC repairs in the municipal building which were begun last year but never adequately addressed, and some $2.8 million towards road improvements (which are also covered by about $1.2 million in grants, many from the New Jersey Department of Transportation).

As Davidson explained it, “if we don’t do an annual capital budget, roads don’t get paved, trash trucks don’t get bought, and we won’t have DPW vehicles to go and salt and plow the roads in the snow. And those capital needs don’t disappear.”

In other business, Ila Vassallo, the chair of the township Environmental Commission and the Evesham Green Team, came forward to request that the township consider becoming involved in an education campaign now being offered by neighboring Mount Laurel, which is operated by Community Solar, a state-run program that allows New Jersey communities to reap some of the benefits of solar energy without residents needing to install solar panels. Designed largely for low-to-moderate -income households and those living in affordable housing, the program delivers energy supplied by solar panels located on nearby commercial buildings, landfills or brownfields, via their electric utility.

While at present, she said, there is one source of such solar power of which Evesham residents might avail themselves, saving them 10 percent on their electric bills, an additional six are expected to become available by fall, which are expected to offer double that savings.

Vassallo’s request eventually elicited a response from Cooper, who revealed that the Community Solar concept was on the next agenda of the township environmental commission but hadn’t yet been made public. The education campaign, however, “is part of Evesham’s initiative,” she said, adding that the commission was “happy to invite the Green Team” to attend its next meeting.

Another topic – that of the township’s dearth of pickleball facilities – was again raised during the public comment period by resident Stephen Huffnagle. He asked why pickleball had not been included in the township’s summer activities program, and wanted to know what had become of a proposal in a 2016 master plan for Evesboro Downs Park showing two tennis courts that “could have accommodated six pickleball courts,” and why the possibility of using that site hadn’t come up a couple years previously during the time when the township was considering the viability of the courts at Brush Hollow Park that were recently shut down as hazardous.

Huffnagle, among other things, also requested that “each council member give a brief statement on the status of pickleball in the township” and what “outside source of money” the council members might be contemplating to finance it.

In response to those queries, Freeman said that along with other council members, he has been trying for a number of months “to find locations in town that will be able to support a pickleball court as well as accommodating players’ vehicles, since pickleball is often played by a large number of individuals who will require a considerable number of parking spaces. He also said he had personally looked at possible sources of grant funding for the activity.

“We want residents to know we are working to try to get it done,” he declared. “Unfortunately, that has not happened yet, but we are still working.”

Veasy concurred that while pickleball was not originally a top priority of the township, finding an adequate facility to accommodate it was something “we are working on as a council,” and that it is “just a matter of finding the right place and the right funds to make it come to reality, as you can see with our capital budget.” Its popularity, she added, is not just limited to seniors.