Pine Barrens Tribune March 4, 2023 - March 10, 2023

FR EE Vol. 7 – No. 17 ♦ www.pinebarrenstribune.com

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March 4 - March 10, 2023

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Evesham Laments Unexpected Passing of Deborah Hackman, Former Councilwoman

CANNABIS CONTENTION

Ex-Mayor, Council Member Who Served with Her Recall Late Colleague’s Dedication to Youth, Family and Friends

By Bill Bonvie Staff Writer

EVESHAM—The sudden passing of former Evesham Township Republican Councilwoman Deborah K. Hackman on Feb. 23, reportedly after suffering cardiac arrest, has given rise to expressions of shock and sorrow from those with whom she served, and who characterized her as both a committed community advocate and someone whose friendship they held in the highest regard.

The 64-year-old science and special education teacher was described to the Pine Barrens Tribune by former Evesham Mayor Randy Brown as someone who had made “everlasting” contributions to the township during her nearly decade-long tenure on the council, and by Robert DiEnna, another of her former council colleagues, as being “a good friend to all who knew her” and the very embodiment of the word “integrity” in the performance of her duties as a member of the township’s governing body and at times as its deputy mayor.

“Without her on the council, I would never have been as successful a mayor as I was,” contended Brown, who served in that position from 2007 to the end of 2018, and who described the news of her unexpected death as “devastating” and “a gut punch for all of us.”

DiEnna recalled his fellow council See COUNCILWOMAN/ Page 6

Photo By Douglas D. Melegari

Shuttered Jamison’s Bar & Grill at 6 Fort Dix Road, the site of a proposed cannabis dispensary.

Republican and Democratic Members of Pemberton Township Council Clash Over Request from Prospective Cannabis Dispensary for Letter of Support to Open Store Near Town Line with Pemberton Boro.; Locals Vocally Oppose Proposed Plan for Shuttered Bar and Grill Business Administrator: Requested Correspondence Later Granted By 3-2 Vote Along Party Lines

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON—An emotionally charged Pemberton Township Council meeting, with some visibly upset attendees even shouting and screaming at times, including expressions of “Shame on you!” aimed at the Democratic governing body members who currently hold the majority and have been open to allowing cannabis enterprises here, unfolded Feb. 15, the result of time (significant at that) being allotted during a nearly four hour-long session to the two proprietors of a prospective cannabis retailer, who (along with their public

relations person and attorney) presented plans for a “proposed Class 5 cannabis dispensary” at 6 Fort Dix Road.

The site in question had been the longtime location of Jamison’s Bar & Grill, a nowshuttered establishment on the very edge of the township line with Pemberton Borough, which closed in the spring of last year.

Of particular concern to the two Pe mb e r t o n Tow n s h i p Re p ub l i c a n counci l members, as wel l as to the municipality’s new GOP mayor, in addition to several of the outspoken residents, is the prospective retailer’s proximity to Pemberton Township educational facilities,

a Wawa convenience store, a troubled village with a history of violent crime, as well as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, the latter a “federal military installation,” with GOP Councilman Joshua Ward pointing out that “marijuana” is still “illegal” under federal law, which later drew a rebuke from Democratic Council President Donovan Gardner, who maintained that “cannabis” is only illegal because of “racism.”

“I am sure everybody in this room is aware that we just had an election this past year,” declared Ward, who along with GOP Councilman Dan Dewey, are See CANNABIS Page 8

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Saturday, March 4, 2023

Woodland Twp. Officials Now Recognize Feral Cat Problem One Month After Solicitor Stated Town Took No Position on Whether One Existed

A picture of purported feral cats on resident Terry Sheerin’s Woodland property.

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

WOODLAND—Officials in Woodland Township, in somewhat of an apparent aboutface, have now recognized that there is a feral cat problem in the vicinity of Old Tuckerton Road, acknowledging its animal control officer is “aware there are a lot of cats there,” one month after the municipal solicitor, in response to concerns from the public, stated on the record, “there is some conflicting reports of how many cats (there are) and whether there is actually a feral cat problem” and that “the township takes no position on whether there is a feral cat problem.”

“As far as the cats, I don’t think anybody doubted or called you a liar,” responded Mayor William “Billy” DeGroff during a Feb. 22 Woodland Township Committee meeting after resident Jane Donoghue, following the recognition of a problem, called on the solicitor, William Burns, to issue a public apology, maintaining he “basically” called both her and resident Terry Sheerin a liar during the Jan. 25 telephonic committee meeting after they had described the feral cat problem in detail in the neighborhood.

“Personally, I don’t see any reason for an apology. I don’t think anyone doubted there was an issue with cats, but it is just something you can’t do (fix) overnight.”

Brown said that after being advised of an “accusation” against Burns that he “insinuated” that “someone lied,” she listened back to the Jan. 25 committee meeting and found that the official simply stated “we were not exactly positive of the status of the cats because we were receiving conflicting information.”

“What he meant is we received an email from other residents that there is not a cat population issue,” Brown contended. “He was not specifically calling anyone a liar; he was just saying we were getting conflicting info from residents.”

The issue of feral cats in the vicinity of Old Tuckerton Road was raised during the Feb. 22 governing body meeting when Brown disseminated an email that Sheerin wrote to her back on Feb. 13 describing that within hours of “cages” being set up on her property by the township, “three cats were captured.”

“Sadly, that leaves around 18 to 20 more,” Sheerin contended.

Sheerin went on to describe her belief that the volume of feral cats that still needed to be trapped “would appear to be outside the scope of what animal control would normally do.”

“I think the committee might want to consider a special project contract as this is a massive issue that may have been circumvented had it been addressed and a strategy had been devised over a year ago,” Sheerin continued.

“It has now become a health problem for the community as these cats are not vaccinated or sprayed/neutered, and if this continues out of control; kitten season will produce more.”

She added that “as the animal control folks are trying to coordinate their strategy” it has become “evident this will require more man hours.”

Brown, however, responded verbally

Photo Provided

during the Feb. 22 committee session that after speaking with the township’s animal control officer (who is contracted with the municipality versus being a public employee), “they plan on staying the course” and that “he didn’t say it was out of the realm of their contract.”

“He said they are going out every day, checking traps, and taking cats to the shelter,” Brown said.

Brown then forewarned the committee that a “little more” money will need to be budgeted in the animal operating expense portion of this year’s township budget because “of the amount of cats out there” and a cost to the township of “$35 a cat.”

The animal control officer, she maintained, was emphatic that his company “will stay the course until every cat is caught.”

Committeewoman Donna Mull called the price to “take a cat away for $35” one that is “very reasonable,” and declared, “I say keep him on the job,” maintaining such work can cost upwards of $100 in other municipalities.

Brown clarified that “$35 is the amount the shelter charges the township” to take in a cat, and that the municipality currently compensates its animal control officer $1,050 per quarter through a “fee.”

“I still feel it is pretty reasonable, even for euthanasia,” Mull responded. “$1,000 a quarter is still pretty good, even if they are out a lot.”

Brown, during the whole discussion, noted the local animal shelter is “not happy” and “very upset.”

Sheerin, in her email, after noting she is “an animal lover,” continued that to “propose this” presented her with a “quite difficult” decision.

“However, it is simply errant to not address it,” wrote Sheerin, emphasizing during the Feb. 22 meeting the animal control officer has been “professional,” responsive,” and that she “can’t say anything errant or bad about these people,” but that the situation “is not just one that ‘we are going to go down and take a contract and pick up 16 cats a year,’” but presents “really intensive” work for the firm and that whoever does it “deserves to be paid for what they are doing.”

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Report of a Dog Having Gone Missing in Shamong Belonging to Relative of Woman Sentenced in High-profile Animal Cruelty Case Roils Meeting

Other Allegations That Those Related to Woman Recently Had ‘Puppies for Sale’ and ‘Whispers’ That Property Next Door to Former Kennel is Drawing Interest of Family with History of “Raising Swine, Poultry for Slaughter” Startle Attendees

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

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SHAMONG—A report that a dog that recently went missing belongs to a relative of a Shamong Township woman who was recently sentenced to jail time in a highprofile animal cruelty case and forbidden to own or maintain animals for a five-year period, and another set of remarks that at least two of her relatives have also been purportedly advertising “puppies for sale” amid longstanding allegations that the woman sentenced has been at the helm of some type of “dog breeding” operation, roi le d a Feb. 7 Sha mong Tow nsh ip Committee meeting.

But as Township Solicitor Doug Heinold pointed out, he “believes” there is “no prohibition” in place on the “son-in-law” (the one alleged during the session to have lost a dog) that would prevent him from “owning or selling dogs,” with the man not charged in connection with the case against Donna Roberts, the latter found in 2018 to have had 161 dogs living in “inhumane conditions” and another 44 dead dogs packaged in plastic bags and stored in freezers on an Oakshade Road parcel, a case that grabbed national headlines and prompted the subsequent charges against her, as well as led to a later guilty plea.

However, when Resident Laura King asserted Feb. 7 “they just found out who that dog belongs to” that went missing and then maintained “there is an ad up that he is selling puppies” despite having said they are

“his family pets,” the solicitor then revealed, “the county prosecutor’s office is aware that there is an issue or complaints have been made.”

But further roiling the meeting and appearing to startle attendees was when a woman by the name of “Meghan” came to the dais to inform the Shamong committee that there is alleged “whisperings” of a “family interested in bidding” on a purported 10-acre property, which “borders Donna Robert’s property,” with the family allegedly having a history of “raising swine and poultry for slaughter.”

This newspaper previously reported that another case of alleged animal cruelty shocked the same neighborhood when, in April 2019, authorities, months after charging Roberts, had moved in on a parcel next door to the Roberts’ property, with a woman there charged after officials purportedly found 20 dogs living in purported deplorable and inhumane conditions.

The exact layout of these adjoining properties at issue wasn’t immediately clear as of press time.

But before the potential for a prospective slaughter operation was raised to the Shamong committee, King, after explaining how she learned through Facebook who the lost dog “belonged to,” declared, “What a disgrace!”

Shamong Committeeman Chris Zehnder, in reacting to the report that a dog tied to the Roberts family had gone missing, quipped, See DOG/ Page 7

Two Pemberton Boro. Council Members Conduct ‘Preliminary Analysis’ of What Pulling Plug on Electric Department Would Mean for Residents

By Douglas D. Melegari Staff Writer

PEMBERTON BOROUGH—At least two members of Pemberton Borough Council have looked into whether it would be feasible for the borough to pull the plug on its Electric Department, and instead have borough residents receive electric service from one of the state’s main power providers, presumably in this case, given the municipality’s geographical location, Jersey Central Power and Light (JCP&L).

The borough is the only municipality in this newspaper’s coverage area that has what essentially amounts to its own electric company, with residents of other municipalities in the Pines serviced by either JCP&L, Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) or Atlantic City Electric. In the event of a power outage in the borough, it is the municipality’s Electric Department that is dispatched to make repairs.

Pemberton Borough is one of a handful of municipalities in the state that has its own electric utility.

As reported by this newspaper a couple weeks ago, the borough was without its two bucket trucks for a time due to disrepair and an issue in obtaining the necessary parts to conduct the necessary repairs (one is still reportedly out of service and awaiting repair, according to Council President Terry Jerome, who oversees the borough’s Electric Department). Additionally, it was recently described by Borough Mayor Harold Griffin that there is a problem with too much electrical load being placed on one of two substations for the borough, with a broken interconnection/ transfer switch also said to be currently disabled.

Those reports were in addition to a resident

complaint in January that the rate being charged to borough residents for electricity seemed higher than compared to what those are being charged who live outside the borough.

Councilman Steven Fenster, appointed to oversee the borough’s Finance Department, along with Councilwoman Diane Fanucci, were said during a Feb. 21 Pemberton Borough Council meeting to have since gathered a “preliminary report” on whether disbanding the Electric Department would present any savings to borough residents, in addition to preliminarily looking at what, if any, impact there would be to the municipal budget.

Prior to all the revelations made during a January borough council meeting, as Fanucci pointed out in presenting the report, it had been “one of my goals to research electric.”

Her research, she explained, found that Pemberton Borough is a “member of the Public Power Association” along with Butler, Lavallette, Madison, Milltown, Park Ridge, Seaside Heights, Vineland and South River, and “this consortium purchases electricity utilizing either JCP&L, which we purchase from, or PSE&G Alliance.” Then, she continued, “each town sets its own rates” based on factors that are “unique to the town.”

She noted that many towns have “summer and winter rates, non-peak and peak rates, and all have residential and commercial rates.”

As for the “electric revenue” that is generated, South River, a borough in Middlesex County with a population of almost 16,000 people, Fanucci said, “uses $3 million in surplus to offset its property taxes.”

And Madison “has an interesting use for some of its electric profit,” by giving “many of its lower income residents a $200 refund.”

See ELECTRIC/ Page 11

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Wolfdogs ‘No Longer There’, Says Southampton Township Administrator After Escape from New Road Home Led to President’s Day Weekend Stir

By Douglas D. M elegari Staff Writer

SOUTHAMPTON—A pack of four wolfdog “puppies” that generated significant concern in a Southampton Township neighborhood after having gotten loose for a time during President’s Day weekend, on the heels of several incidents the previous year involving wolfdog escapes from the same owner, are “no longer there” at the New Road residence they have resided for a better part of the last year, according to Southampton Township Administrator and Clerk Kathleen D. Hoffman.

“They are no longer there,” declared Hoffman when asked March 1 by this newspaper for an update on the wolfdogs. “I don’t know where they went. But the animal control officer came in Monday and told me they are gone.”

Southampton Mayor Michael Mikulski, during a Feb. 21 township committee meeting, had told concerned residents, primarily from the Ridge Tree neighborhood where they were seen on the prowl, that the situation would be “more permanently resolved” by Feb. 27.

Hoffman, on March 1, when asked if there had been any kind of ultimatum given to owner Alex Shugars that would have forced him to give up the dogs, or whether his doing so was voluntary, replied it was “voluntary.”

As this newspaper previously reported, Mikulski and Township Solicitor George Morris, last week, despite residents having concerns that wolfdogs have a “strong prey drive” and therefore pose a threat to pets and livestock, and there being unsubstantiated reports that pets and livestock were killed in the wolfdog escapes, maintained that “in New Jersey, there isn’t any rule against these particular hybrid dogs” and “I think New Jersey has a law that says you can’t do a breed specific ordinance – that is my recollection.”

The only laws on the township books in regard to dogs, Mikulski explained at the time, hold residents to a maximum of five dogs and require that they be “under your control at all times.”

As of right now, “a judge can only tell (the owner) that they can’t have more than five,”

the mayor acknowledged last week.

Hoffman, when asked by this newspaper on March 1 if there was anything on the books that would prevent Shugars from bringing the wolfdogs back to his residence, replied, “not at this time – no.”

In response to this newspaper’s coverage of the latest escape being shared in a local social media group on Feb. 26, someone identifying as a good friend of Shugars, a fellow U.S. Marine, replied that day that “they were dropped off today,” contending “they are gone” and are now in North Carolina.

That individual also declared of those continuing to complain that “these people don’t have anything better to do” other than to create “drama,” and quipped, “I’m gonna call the township tomorrow to see if we can put a border around Southampton so the coyotes can’t get in.”

He then maintained, in response to an apparent reference to allegations that a rabbit was killed during one of the escapes last year, that the “dogs should not have been out – 1,000 percent, however, “it works both ways” and the “rabbit obviously wasn’t secure enough to not allow a predator to get into its enclosure,” pointing out “it could’ve been a hawk or a coyote as well” that resulted in the animal’s death.

“Welcome to Southampton, where there are other predators out there,” he declared.

“Just because his dogs are locked up and can’t get out, doesn’t mean the rabbits are safe. My next-door neighbor has chickens and peacocks which go missing all the time.

And I’m 100 percent sure it is not from the wolfdogs, lol (laugh-out-loud).”

When a woman asked the man if the wolfdogs having been purportedly taken to North Carolina “means he (Shugars) will never ever get more wolfdogs,” the man replied, “that is none of my or your business.”

“The dogs are gone, now move on with your life,” the man asserted, pointing out to those questioning why the owner didn’t part ways with the dogs sooner or why he decided on wolfdogs as a pet, “It’s not easy getting rid of dogs; I’m sure most would prefer dogs over people.”

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Saturday, March 4, 2023

USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Rural Development Comes to Pemberton to Announce $1 Million Grant for Deborah Hospital to ‘Fortify Its Resources’

From left: Deborah Heart and Lung Center’s Joseph Manni, Executive Vice President, COO; Sue Bonfield, Esq., Executive Vice President, Legal Affairs/General Counsel; Barbara George Johnson, chair, Board of Trustees; Farah Ahmad, Deputy Under Secretary, USDA Rural Development; and Jane Asselta, New Jersey State Director, USDA Rural Development.

Photos Provided

From left, Joseph Manni, Executive Vice President, COO, Deborah Heart and Lung Center; Farah Ahmad, Deputy Under Secretary, USDA Rural Development; Sue Bonfield, Esq., Executive Vice President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs, and General Counsel at Deborah Heart and Lung Center; Judith Persichilli, state commissioner of Health; and Jane Asselta, New Jersey State Director, USDA Rural Development, at a press conference announcing a $1 million Emergency Rural Health Care grant to Deborah Heart and Lung Center, and a $555,800 grant to Shore Medical Center.

For the Pine Barrens Tribune

BROWNS MILLS—Farah Ahmad, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) deputy under secretary for Rural Development, announced on Feb. 24 a $1 million Emergency Rural Health Care (ERHC) grant for Deborah Heart and Lung Center, based in the Browns Mills section of Pemberton Township.

“Having access to quality healthcare is an important part of USDA’s commitment to ensuring that people living in rural areas have every opportunity to succeed – and that they can find those opportunities close to home,” Ahmad declared. “The investment we’re announcing here in New Jersey demonstrates how the Biden-Harris administration is partnering with rural people to make sure rural communities can continue to access essential healthcare services for years to come.”

The grant will allow Deborah, the region’s only heart, lung, and vascular specialty

hospital, to “fortify its resources for the next pandemic response” and “transform the future of healthcare” by equipping its patient rooms to meet the critical care standards necessary for treating very ill or highly infectious patients.

“We are grateful for this $1 million grant from the USDA,” said Joseph Chirichella, president and CEO of Deborah. “As a rural hospital and the only specialty heart, lung and vascular hospital in the region, we serve as a critical resource for our community. … This investment in our campus will help to broaden that access and do so in a way that is forward thinking and pandemic-ready.”

Judith Persichilli, commissioner of the state Department of Health, along with other state and local dignitaries, joined Ahmad during the announcement, which also included the award of a $550,800 grant for Shore Medical Center, based in Somers Point.

See HOSPITAL/ Page 13

Saturday, March 4, 2023

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Longtime Southampton Township Committeeman Robert J. Moore Succumbs at 92, Recalled for Being Kindhearted and Gentlemanly

By Bill Bonvie

“loved to read,” Moore was a plain-spoken individual who avoided using “big words” in conversing with people, Young recalled.

SOUTHAMPTON—Robert J. Moore, 92, a retired educator who served for 38 years as a He was also a “very good family man who Southampton Township committeeman and was proud of his children and grandchildren,” as deputy mayor for two of those years before Young added. retiring from the local government post at the Others attested to Moore’s kindness in the end of 2013, according to his obituary and a condolence book posted by Perinchief Chapels previous news report, died Feb. 24 at his home in Mount Holly, which handled his funeral in the Village of Vincentown, with his family services. by his side.

“Bob was a very special person,” wrote Moore began his long career with stints Denise K. Driver. “He will be missed, but teaching 8th grade classes in the Southampton never forgotten. I grew up living and Pemberton Township school down the street and our family was districts and went on to become a very close. I’ll never forget that guidance counselor at Pemberton Bob taught me to drive. When I Township High School before would visit his daughter, time becoming an administrator and would pass and it began to get eventually superintendent of dark. So, Bob decided to let me schools in Pemberton Township. drive home. It wasn’t even a mile, Southampton Committeeman but he wouldn’t let me walk home. and former Mayor James Young, As I was getting ready to learn to a close friend of Moore for many drive, he would let me practice on years, when contacted by phone the back streets of Vincentown!”

March 1, described him to the Pine Moore Nancy Eaton, who said she Barrens Tribune as always being had worked with Moore for many “a gentleman from the time I met years as a secretary, said she would “always him until the time he passed away,” as well as remember him as a very kind person who a “very kindhearted individual” and an allgenuinely cared about the school district and around “good guy” who was also very “down the employees” and “made it a point to know to earth” in relating to people. each employee and greet them by name.”

“If you were to meet him, you’d like him In addition to his council duties, Moore’s from the beginning,” Young maintained. community work included serving as a deacon In addition to being very knowledgeable about the township, Young said, Moore was at First Baptist Church of Vincentown, where also a sports enthusiast with whom he loved he was a lifetime member, and as an ex-trustee to “shoot the breeze” over coffee at a local of the Sally Stretch Keen Memorial Library. diner after committee meetings, often about Moore is survived by his wife Edna; his the fortunes of the Phillies and the Eagles. children; Edward (Patricia) Moore, Susan And while he was highly educated, holding a (John) Wagner, and Barbara Moore; five Master’s Degree from Rutgers University, and grandsons; and a great-granddaughter.

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House Destroyed By Four-Alarm Inferno in Tabernacle Township, Vincent Fire Truck Assisting in Water Shuttle Involved in Explosion TA BERNACLE —A n i n fer no t h at reportedly reached four alarms destroyed a home on South Park Road in Tabernacle Township during the late evening hours of Feb. 28.

A fire truck belonging to Southampton Township-based Vincent Fire Company, in the process of assisting in a water shuttle, was taken offline when its chassis reportedly failed, causing a tire explosion that could be reportedly heard for miles.

According to a social media posting from the Tabernacle Township Fire Department, fire crews were dispatched to the dwelling on South Park Road after receiving a report that a porch was “actively on fire.”

“First arriving units noted the fire had progressed further into the dwelling and was pushing through the roof,” the posting continued. “Crews gained entry and worked to slow the fire’s progression but were met with failing roof joists triggering all members to evacuate the dwelling.”

Fire crews were said to have only been able to re-enter the dwelling once the “bulk of the fire had been extinguished.” Pictures from the scene showed that the home was destroyed.

According to the posting, numerous mutual aid companies, in addition to the firefighters with the Tabernacle Fire Department, remained on the scene for “multiple hours” working to “complete overhaul” and “extinguish hot spots.”

T he Tab er na cle Fi re D e p a r t me nt reported that the “homeowners were able to get out of the residence” and that it was smoke detectors in the home that had “notified them of the smoke condition.”

Multiple individuals who claimed to have been in contact with the affected family

reported that the residents of the home were unharmed as well as pets and animals.

Horses in a nearby barn were reportedly uninjured in the incident.

A social media posting from the Vincent Fire Company described the affected dwelling as “a large 5,000 square-foot home.”

“Due to no hydrants in the area and the inaccessibility of a nearby pond, Engine 1712 was set up as a water supply engine at the end of the driveway utilizing portable ponds filled by water tenders to feed a 1,000foot supply line up the driveway to the fire,” Vincent Fire wrote. “While operating within the water shuttle operation, our 30-year-old Tender 1716 (known as the “Blue Beast”) suffered a catastrophic chassis failure which caused both front wheels to become extremely hot, and once met with cold water, both tires violently exploded.”

Locals reported an explosion being heard as far away as the Hampton Lakes section of Southampton Township.

The Blue Beast is a replacement fire truck for one that had been destroyed in a wreck in December 2020.

The water tender is actually a blue-colored 1995 HME 4 GUYS model, which previously belonged to the now-defunct Mizpah Fire Company, of Hamilton, Atlantic County, as previously reported by this newspaper.

The Southampton committee purchased it for Vincent Fire for $25,000 in late 2021.

The Vincent Fire Company noted that “thankfully there were no major injuries, but the family did lose almost everything they had in the home.”

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LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES

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Saturday, March 4, 2023

Photo Provided

Deborah Hackman, former Evesham council member, who passed away on Feb. 23.

COUNCILWOMAN (Continued from Page 1)

member as “a very staunch, loyal and dependable member of the community” who always came across as “genuine” and “without any pretense.”

“Debbie never sought the kind of attention that can come with being an elected official,” he maintained. “She served for all the right reasons, had a really clear perspective, did her due diligence on issues, didn’t waffle or beat around the bush, and always put friendship before politics or political differences.”

Her achievements on the council, Brown noted, included having created the Evesham Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), which offers students in grades 6-12 an opportunity to plan and manage their own service projects and initiatives (“nurturing the next generation of leaders,” as she put it), as well as championing sports programs, serving as an advocate for for the Girl Scouts, and championing any cause that might benefit the township’s youth.

Brow n a nd D i En na a l so of fere d their deepest sympathies to Hackman’s unexpectedly bereaved family – her husband of 32 years, David Hackman, and daughters Rachel and Abigail (Abby), both of whom are in their 20s, with DiEnna describing Hackman as “the consummate family person, mom and wife.”

“There was never a moment when she didn’t demonstrate the total family commitment,” was how DiEnna put it. “We always coerced her daughters to campaign door-to-door with us by promising to have ice cream afterward.”

Both Rachel Hackman, in a phone interview with this newspaper, and her sister Abigail in a eulogy posted on Facebook, characterized their mother as their “best friend” and as the person most instrumental in molding their character.

“She was there for me,” Rachel Hackman reminisced. “It’s hard to say goodbye to someone who has dedicated their life to making sure you turn out to be a decent human being. She poured her life into Abigail and me.”

But then, Rachel Hackman contended, her mother was someone who essentially “lived for other people.”

“I’m just overwhelmed by the amount of love and support we’ve received from the community,” she added.

Abby Hackman’s tribute read, in part: “I don’t have the words to express the pain in my heart. …I am so sad to see you go so soon. You brought light to this world, and

I would not be who I am without you. …

I know you are walking on the beaches of heaven and looking down on me right now.”

Both of Deborah Hackman’s former council colleagues also concurred that she was a fitness buff who appeared to be in good shape and didn’t seem to be suffering from any illness and indicated they were quite taken aback at the unforeseen nature of her passing, which occurred at Virtua Marlton Hospital where she was taken shortly after she returned from her job teaching at Burlington County Institute of Technology (BCIT) in Westampton. (At the time of her death, she was in the process of studying for a Master’s Degree at Wilmington University, according to her obituary.)

“Every time you saw her, she was bubbly and smiling,” Brown recalled.

T he role she playe d i n Eve sha m government was also praised in a press release an nounci ng her death from Democratic Mayor Jaclyn “Jackie” Veasy and the rest of the current township council.

“I want to personally offer my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Councilwoman Deb Hackman,” Veasy noted in the release. “Her many years of public service and volunteer efforts in Evesham reflect her strong dedication to helping her community and the residents she served. She took especially great pride in guiding our local youth, and the lessons she imparted on the importance of community service will live on for years to come in the future leaders who were fortunate enough to learn from her.”

The release also included some words from Brown, who called it “an honor and a privilege to serve alongside Councilwoman Deb Hackman for more than a decade” and described her as “a dedicated public servant, committed to making Evesham Township a great place to live and raise a family.”

According to the release, all flags were to be lowered in Evesham in Hackman’s honor on the day of her funeral service, which was scheduled to take place March 2, with burial in Park View Cemetery in Kirby’s Mill, in Medford Township. It also asked residents to “please keep all her loved ones in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time.”

A native of Drexel Hill, Pa., Hackman graduated from Eastern University in St. Davids, Pa., and taught chemistry at Burlington Township High School prior to being employed at BCIT. In addition to her husband and two daughters, she is survived by her mother, Eleanor Knauss, having been predeceased by her father, Alton Knauss, and her brother, Geoffrey Knauss.

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(Continued from Page 3) “The dog is in the witness protection program right now.”

“Is the county aware of that?” King asked.

“What the heck? The last time they (the authorities) went there, he said his dog is part of his family’s pets. But there is an ad up that he is selling puppies.”

Heinold, in responding that the “county prosecutor’s office is aware that there is an issue or complaints have been made,” added, “I believe the State Police are aware.”

“Obv iou sly, t here h a s b e e n some communication at the township level,” the township solicitor revealed.

However, as of right now, Heinold emphasized, “the only person who is prohibited from owning dogs is Donna Roberts.”

“So, if the son-in-law has ownership of the dog, that is not something …,” said Heinold, before explaining the conviction was against Roberts and “so that does not apply to him.”

But, “Can he sell dogs?”, is another question that King put to the Shamong committee, alleging that Roberts “is there all the time” and shares the same home, further charging, “That is where she lives!”

“I believe so, but I don’t know the answer to that without looking at additional facts,” Heinold replied. “I believe there is no prohibition to him owning or selling dogs.”

King then contended that Robert’s daughter – who forcefully defended her family back in 2018 when dozens of people called on Shamong to create a dog ordinance (which later passed, leading to the discovery on Oakshade Road as it gave authorities the ability to move in on the Robert’s home due a limit on the number of dogs one can have and an inspection mandate) due complaints

about noises and conditions at the elder Roberts’ property with charges that a dog kennel and alleged puppy mill had been established there – was also seen “selling puppies in the yard” of her home when somebody drove by there “several months ago.”

She also asserted “they are doing it in Atco” and “some other places.”

“It doesn’t stop!” King declared. “Why should it stop? They make enough money to pay the fines. They get a slap in the hand.”

The successful sale of just one puppy, King maintained, will cover the cost of a fine.

Roberts, in March 2022, had accepted a guilty plea resulting in 90 days in jail and five years of probation. According to the prosecutor’s office, Roberts “pled guilty to causing the death of six dogs that were being kept at her property by failing to provide them with proper care,” which apparently amounted to “one third-degree count of cruelty to animals.” Additionally, Roberts, according to the prosecutor’s office, must serve five years of probation, during which time she cannot own, raise or otherwise care for any animal.

Public reaction to the sentence handed down to Roberts at the time included that it was “too lenient,” though Shamong Township maintained “for someone to go to jail for 90 days” over animal cruelty, it is a “tremendous outcome” considering how the current state laws in that regard are written.

“I think the issues you are talking about (has to do with) the state,” responded Heinold to King’s contentions that such dog breeding activity has since been moved to other locations, including outside Shamong.

“It is what we sort of have been talking about as we went through this whole process – that is until the state provides for more severe penalties, towns are really left to do what they can, but it never is going to be enough.

Even if we do enough to dissuade the activity here, they can move over to the next town over and do it again.”

King indicated that the blame should not be placed on Shamong officials for the situation at hand, before repeating an earlier expression in regard to the purported situation, “What a disgrace!”

Having roiled what was other w ise anticipated to be a routine township committee meeting, Heinold, in appearing to recognize it, returned to the subject during his solicitor’s report.

After asserting “we will see what happens with the current circumstance,” Heinold declared, “We have learned in Shamong, by living through it, that unless and until the state is willing to look at this through a statewide perspective … anybody who wants to play this game from the other side of the fence doesn’t have enough penalties to face to dissuade them from playing the game.”

“That is kind of where things are at,” the township solicitor added. “It is happening way above any capability the municipality has – not just Shamong.”

He then told the Shamong committee that “he circulated to you” Assembly Bill A4920, which is “not yet law,” which, as proposed by Assemblyman Herb Conaway late last year, “establishes restrictions on the number of dogs kept on residential properties; establishes a residential kennel license for properties of which an owner keeps and houses 15 to 25 dogs, and puts into effect inspection and maintenance requirements for residential kennels.” (The kennel on Roberts’ property burned down in a March 2021 blaze.)

Conaway, Shamong Committeeman Brian Woods pointed out, is also the head of the Burlington County Health Department, declaring it is “no coincidence” why the assemblyman proposed the bill.

This newspaper previously reported

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES ♦ Page 7 that in the decade prior to Roberts being charged, the health department received nu merou s c ompla i nt s p er t a i n i ng to Roberts and dogs that she sold, as well as conducted an inspection of her Shamong premises, finding 125 dogs at the Robert’s property around 2014, but was forbidden by a judge to take any action at the time due to Shamong having no dog ordinance then, as well as there being no state statutes limiting the number of dogs one can have in their possession.

“A lot of provisions in it are very familiar or are taken from or influenced by the Shamong Township ordinance,” Heinold maintained. “At least the state is trying to do something in terms of mandates.

“In Shamong, typically, we don’t pass ordinances until somebody doesn’t do what is common sense. And it only takes one person to sort of upset the apple cart. That is certainly what happened here. We put the ordinance in that allowed the inspection to take place, and it resulted in what it resulted in. The reality is that person could pick up and go to the next town over and repeat the same process over again and that town would have to go through the process of responding to it. This would at least have some sort of a statewide maximum in place. This is at least a step in the right direction. I don’t know that it is perfect, but it is something.”

The legislation, “even at that,” Heinold noted, would only prescribe “civil penalties” to offenders, or what amounts to “all fines and the cost of doing business fines.”

Shamong Mayor Michael Di Croce, followed up on that point, declaring, “I am going to say what we did worked, and the person went to jail and it precluded them from having any type of activity with animals.”

“Now that does not include a husband, or a kid … and if someone is going to play See DOG/ Page 11

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Another view of a former bar and grill that two men hope to turn into a cannabis dispensary.

CANNABIS

(Continued from Page 1) the first Republicans to be seated on the township governing body since 2016, and whose 2022 running mate, Jack Tompkins, toppled longtime township mayor David Patriarca, making for the first political shift in the administration in 16 years. “Me and my fellow councilman, and mayor, had ‘Pemberton Township is Open for Business’ as our slogan, but I am sorry, it is not open for a federally illegal business.”

However, it may still be after all, following a later 3-2 vote along party lines that granted the proprietors’ request.

Setting the ruckus in motion before that vote, however, is when Greg M. D’Agostino, a partner in a Massachusetts-based public relations firm representing the local cannabis proprietors, Aaron Marks and Nate Barney, told the township council that the men are “seeking your support for an application to the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC)” for Alchemy Botanics to receive a “Class 5 Retail Cannabis License,” noting “our proposed Class 5 dispensary is located at 6 Fort Dix Road.”

Marks, a senior engineering manager at a global cybersecurity firm who also spent 17 years in the defense industry, identified himself as “majority owner” of Alchemy Botanics, and contended that his experience of “working on various projects in a controlled area” is what “qualifies me for working in situations that are highly regulated and controlled,” while Barney said he worked with Marks when he was at Lockheed Martin, with Marks touting their friendship over the years.

Marks called what is proposed a project that

will “ultimately benefit Pemberton.”

D’Agostino, in providing those project details, maintained that at 6 Fort Dix Road is an existing 4,000 square-foot stand-alone building which “both meets the size and the type” of facility required “under Pemberton’s cannabis ordinance.”

“On this site, we have adequate parking for both employees and customers, and good ingress and egress off Fort Dix Road,” contended D’Agostino, pointing out that the preliminary plan calls for the majority of parking for the outlet to be on the southside of the building, along with a few spots on the northside, and that the plan also includes parking for those who are disabled.

Then, in revealing a “concept floor plan for the facility,” he identified a “very large salesfloor area” as well as “back of the house operations” and a “receiving” area.

“All customers,” D’Agostino continued, would enter the facility through the “same entrance,” which would lead to an “entry vestibule.” It is in that vestibule that “age verification occurs,” or where customers will be asked to provide identification that will be “scanned.”

“Nobody will be allowed to enter into the facility until their age has been verified,” he maintained. “Once their age has been verified, customers can enter onto the salesfloor.”

The salesfloor will comprise of “secure product displays” as well as “kiosks in which customers can place orders” and “point of sales stations,” all while “budtenders” will be there to “help educate customers about the product and build their orders” and there would also be a “myriad of ways customers can interact on the salesfloor.”

Customers, D’Agostino emphasized, would not be allowed to exit through the way that they came in, but rather must “exit through

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the exit vestibule,” with the public relations person noting that the exit door would be “interlocking” to “avoid someone from being able to come in through the exit” to the salesfloor.

Though any potential customers would also have the ability to “build an order on the website” for the enterprise, any online shoppers would still “have to come in” and “be age verified” before being given their goods, according to D’Agostino. (The two owners, in response to a later question posed by Democratic Councilman Elisabeth McCartney, said the firm’s website does not yet exist.)

It is in the “back of house order fulfillment room,” per D’Agostino, that “employees will pick and pack orders” and where an “active inventory” will be maintained “during the day,” with the room outlined to have a “passthrough window similar to a pharmacy” where an employee will pass through any orders to another employee sitting “behind the sales counter.”

The interior of the facility, according to D’Agostino, would also have a general “storage room,” with him maintaining that the rules only allow for “non-cannabis goods” such as t-shirts and hats to be stored in there, while a second area known as “secure storage” will house the product. The latter, he described, would be retrofitted with “steel mesh laid between the glue boards” to “secure the storage area from the exterior of the building,” while also securing the room at its entry point.

A “good thing about this facility,” D’agostino asserted, is that it would have a “separate ingress” for “wholesale deliveries” enabling those customers to “go into a dedicated door.” Those buying wholesale, he said, would “come into the facility” and find “product would be waiting for them, manifested into a tracking system.”

“Based on other commercial businesses in that area, we think the use aligns very well with some of the adjacent businesses along Fort Dix Road,” D’Agostino declared. “We do not expect the use will have any adverse impact to residents.”

On the issue of security, D’Agostino vowed there would be a “security guard on site, at all times at the facility, if it is operational and open to the public” and that a security system would be monitored 24/7, for all 365 days of the year. The facility would also be retrofitted, he said, with seven “electronic and access control card readers” with associated software allowing movement to be “tracked,” while 28 “fixed cameras,” including two “multi-lens cameras” would provide “a 360-degree view of the entire interior and exterior of the building” that “includes all of the parking and loading areas, all ingresses and egresses to the site, and all areas available to the public, and where cannabis is stored, per the Pemberton cannabis ordinance.”

“We will invite the Pemberton Police Department to come in and look at the design,

the camera placement, how the system works, and the audit trail process that is created by the access system and seek any input they might have,” vowed D’Agostino, noting that all surveillance footage would be stored for at least 45 days.

Gardner asked if the security guard would be “armed,” to which he was told that person “can be” and that “some law enforcement departments will weigh in as to whether there is a preference or not, or if there is a prohibition on that.”

Some of the state’s existing cannabis retailers are known to be “cash-based businesses,” and the potential for there to be large amounts of cash on hand has led to security concerns being voiced in the state. In broaching this issue, D’Agostino maintained that the enterprise, hoping to bring on about 20 employees, has “already established a bank account with BCB Community Bank,” calling it “one of the leaders in banking, on cannabis,” pointing out the enterprise “had to go through a process to get vetted by BCB bank,” in which the firm “even does their own background check.”

“The bank has its own requirements in regard to movement of cash,” D’Agostino said. “As part of our operations, there will be a safe in the secure storage area, which is already built out to deter penetration from the exterior. There will also be a separate safe in the secure storage area for cash.”

BCB Bank, he explained, “has its own third party vendors” who will travel to the location to “come and pick up that cash” that is received and “once cash leaves the facility, the third party will bring it to a vault, or to a BCB bank branch.”

However, the public relations person maintained that “a lot of transactions” processed at cannabis retailers are actually what are called “cashless ATM” transactions, or ones in which customers use a “debit card.”

“A lot of transactions occur with debit,” D’Agostino said. “So, I don’t expect there to be a huge volume of cash.”

Both Gardner and McCartney posed several questions throughout the presentation regarding how a customer’s identification would be processed and verified, with D’Agostino explaining that the CRC requires all cannabis retailers in the state to “use the same system” or a “seed to sale tracking system.”

“This isn’t something where an operator says, ‘I will try this and see if it works,’ but is rather through a vendor the state CRC has selected,” he responded, noting that the system tracks product as it moves into and through a facility.

While D’Agostino acknowledged he “doesn’t know in particular” how the state handles “weights and measures,” the public relations person emphasized “before that wholesale driver can leave, the product needs to be weighed and entered into that See CANNABIS/ Page 10

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CANNABIS

(Continued from Page 8) system” and has to also be “registered before going into secure storage.” A scale, he noted, is “typically” located on a counter in the “receiving room.”

“There are very specific requirements for a wholesaler, or cultivator bringing product in, and (that they are subject to) before leaving, (outlining) where it (the product) needs to go,” added D’Agostino, maintaining that any inventory is “recounted” and “reweighed” before going into direct storage.

As for checking identification, D’Agostino could only say that it is “verified by a third party” and that “regulators don’t allow operators to pick that system,” and in cases of any online purchases, “it is not like Amazon where it (the item) is left at the front door,” but rather cannabis retailers perform “attended deliveries.”

Discarding waste, the public relations person pointed out, is also a process that has been planned, asserting “if any product is deemed not to be sold because of a quality of standard issue,” etc., it would still be entered into the seed to sale tracking system, but “marked” as “needing to be destroyed,” before being moved into secure storage “until” a “third party approved by the CRC can take it for disposal or destruction.”

Despite all those assurances, D’Agostino was queried as to how “minors” would be handled, and if they will be permitted to be waiting in the parking lot of the facility.

“I don’t believe so,” is how some of the Alchemy Botanics representatives initially

responded, but then the township council was advised that per state regulations, “the only reason a minor can come into the facility is if they are accompanied by a parent, effectively.”

While that appeared to come as a surprise to some attending the meeting, the township council was further advised the “rationale for that rule” is that “you don’t necessarily want kids to stay in cars.”

“Practically speaking, most folks aren’t bringing kids into a cannabis dispensary, just like most people don’t bring their kids into liquor store,” D’Agostino said.

Some of the township councilmembers picked up on the fact that it was mentioned in Alchemy Botanics’ plans that it is in possession of a liquor license, inherited from the former owner of the facility at issue.

“No proposed liquor is allowed on this site,” D’Agostino replied. “It (the license) sort of ran with the property. So, it is included in the document. That would either be disposed of or sold, but no, it is not associated with the site.

And that (selling liquor) is not allowed under your regulations or the CRC’s regulations.”

Rather, the liquor license is just “part of the asset” the owners of 6 Fort Dix Road inherited with the sale, D’Agostino maintained.

But a seemingly burning question that Ward put to the Alchemy Botanics representatives and owners is, “Why Pemberton Township?”

That is when the GOP councilman pointed to the outcome in the recent township election, which saw a Republican swept into the mayoral office for the first time in 16 years, and two Republicans, including him, being elected to council, with Democrats now holding a narrow 3-2 majority on the governing body, before declaring, “Me and my fellow councilman, and mayor, had ‘Pemberton Township is Open

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Ward continued that he is “not against casual adult recreational use of marijuana,” but rather his issue is “several-fold,” including what would be the dispensary’s proximity to the local school system’s various educational buildings, including by pointing out its location to the Pemberton Board of Education Office, he alleged, is within 1,000 feet.

He called it “very odd” that the township Cannabis ordinance, previously passed 3-2 under absolute majority Democratic rule, provides for only a “500-foot leeway to a school system,” and asked, “Who drew your circles?” or the ones presented earlier in the presentation showing what is both in a 500 foot and 1,000 foot radius to 6 Fort Dix Road, appearing to suggest there might have been some sort of coordination with the prior administration (though Patriarca previously maintained he was staunchly against allowing cannabis in Pemberton, though he declined to use his veto powers to override council).

Ward’s repeated reference that the leeway is “odd,” as well as Dewey asking a pointed question of, “How long have you been talking to Pemberton?” led longtime meeting regular America Phillips to angrily demand to know “the truth,” screaming at one point, “Don’t lie to me!” The remaining Democratic members on township council, Gardner, McCartney, and Paul Detrick, were the ones who put the cannabis ordinance in motion, legalizing such businesses in the township.

“Shame on you!” Phillips angrily continued to scream. “You voted ‘yes’! What are you doing to the children of this town? You want to bring these people here? You got the church next door, the child center (Pemberton Early Childhood Education Center) on the other corner. Every single bus goes by this, every day! What were you thinking in your minds? … There are other ways to be making money in this town!”

Phillips was referring to not only the Pemberton Early Childhood Education Center being just down the street on Arney’s Mount Road, which intersects with Fort Dix Road, but also Pemberton Township High School, in addition to two nearby elementary schools. Given the geography of the area, large numbers of people and school buses wishing to commute to and from these schools, pass by 6 Fort Dix Road.

According to Ward, federal law is “clear” marijuana is not be used 1,000 feet from “any property used for school purposes, including playgrounds,” calling any such use a “federal crime,” and asserted that the township ordinance “tried to circumvent that issue.”

Additionally, Ward, who pointed out he has heard opposition from “my constituents,” maintained that federal law “identifies” marijuana as a “Schedule One Controlled Substance” that “has potential for abuse.”

His son, Ward said, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard involved in Homeland Security

Saturday, March 4, 2023 activities, could sit across the street at a Wawa store, right now, and “wait for someone to exit” any cannabis retailer at 6 Fort Dix Road and after observing them exit, “arrest them,” a fact that he declared, “sounds interesting to me.”

In response to Ward, who declared he could not support the application and “highly recommended” Alchemy Botanics hire a “surveyor,” D’Agostino responded that he “wouldn’t be able to comment further.”

D’Agostino, however, after Ph ilips demanded answers, ultimately responded that the firm “reached out to Pemberton, mainly Pemberton’s zoning official, to determine if the establishment met the legal criteria as set forth in the township cannabis ordinance around Dec. 23 of last year, and that the “township was not soliciting us in any way.”

“We were making inquiries through the Zoning Office, and the Clerk’s Office handles the application,” D’Agostino said. “We were just requesting information and verifying zoning.”

Marks, in responding to Ward’s initial question about “Why Pemberton Township?”, answered, “My interest in Pemberton is it is very close to where I live.”

“My second reason for it – or why I feel Pemberton is ideal – is, in my mind, we are trying to establish a relationship, and relationships are built on trust and mutual respect,” Marks continued. “So far, in going through this process with Pemberton, they have been nothing but welcoming, understanding and friendly to our cause and for me that is important.

“Last thing – as Greg has been touching on, we want to try to have a positive impact on the community at large. I know Pemberton in the past has struggled with warehouses and a lack of mom and pop stores. My intention is to own and operate this business by myself.

I am not part of a large conglomerate. My intention is to personally own and operate the business. It is something that is important to me and would be both a benefit to me and to your community.”

But while Gardner declared he is “100 percent behind it,” and Detrick proclaimed that Alchemy Botanics is “to me presenting a legal business in the township that has a potential to at least generate a lot of tax dollars for us” and such facilities are “I generally find to be among the better looking businesses,” it appeared from the get-go that any “support” for the application is narrow at best among the council, with Dewey joining with Ward in announcing he would vote “no,” as well as the request getting no support from Tompkins, who declared, “I do not support cannabis,” with the current mayor also pointing out cannabis is “still a controlled substance on base and highly illegal for those individuals to use.”

“So, you are going to open a facility where a large portion of base personnel goes by it every See CANNABIS/ Page 15

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(Continued from Page 7) that game, then they will go through the same process,” Di Croce warned. “But we are going to protect their rights as citizens of America and Shamong, and just because their dog gets out loose, doesn’t mean they are guilty of something.”

As for the dog that had gone missing, according to the Shamong mayor, the concern had been that it may have been subjected to temperatures of around 5 degrees during one of the initial nights when it got out and “hopefully they will find that dog and be done.”

But while it might have initially appeared discussion of the subject “on our radar” had been done for the evening, at the very tail end of the meeting, the Shamong committee appeared to struggle to come to grips with a report from a woman named “Meghan” that there are “whisperings” “of a “family interested in bidding” on a purported 10-acre property, which “border’s Donna Robert’s property,” with the family expressing interest allegedly having a history of “raising swine and poultry for slaughter.”

“I know we are a farming community, and I am all for the Right to Farm, but pigs are slightly different,” said the woman, maintaining that pigs can generate an odor, tear up the ground and produce noise. “I am just (raising this) to try to be proactive instead of being reactive.”

The Shadow Lake development is one where its residents complained of hearing noises and observing other disturbances

related to Robert’s property. The 10-acre parcel at issue, the woman pointed out, “also borders Shadow Lake.”

While she maintained “she doesn’t know just how serious of a thing” pigs could pose to the development, she warned, “there may be a lot of people’s quality of life being disturbed.”

She then asked if in regard to pigs, if there are buffering requirements or ones that spell out “how far away from a development” can they be located.

It is all something that Heinold maintained he would “have to take a look at it,” with Township Administrator Sue Onorato, in response to a question from the woman asking what the parcel at issue is zoned as, responding that it sits in the town’s Agricultural Production Zone.

Committeeman Neil Wilkinson responded that there is an “average 11 percent decrease in property values around pig farms.”

“I don’t begrudge anyone from making a living, or farming or what not,” the woman declared. “But the community that lives there has been through quite a traumatic experience with the puppy mill right there.

I love pigs, but five pigs are different than having 20 pigs.”

It was not immediately clear as of press time if the missing dog has since been reunited with its owner, or if the 10-acre parcel alleged to have been “up for sale for quite some time” is still actually up for grabs.

This newspaper found a listing on Feb. 28 for a 10-acre parcel at 543 Oakshade Road, with it noted that the transaction is “pending” after the parcel had been on realtor.com for 833 days.

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ELECTRIC

(Continued from Page 3) “That is an interesting idea,” Fanucci declared. “Not that we can do it, but I am just throwing it out there.”

Butler, however, “is not allowed to use electric profit in their budget.”

Meanwhile, Pemberton Borough, with a population of a little less than 1,400 people, utilizes “anywhere between $160,000 and $200,000 a month to offset our taxes.”

In doing an “analysis to see if it is feasible to leave the consortium and rejoin JCP&L,” Fanucci said she based the findings on “about” 559 ratable properties that pay for electricity, though she noted it is not a precise figure given she couldn’t immediately locate information for how many apartments there are in the borough, for example, that utilize electricity.

Then “with the help of Mr. Fenster” in doing “an analysis of revenue versus disbursement,” Fanucci incorporated the fact that in December of last year, the borough Electric Department utilized $179,000 from the electric revenue, and in January, it was about $169,000. Borough residents, she pointed out, are currently paying about 22 cents a kilowatt hour, while businesses pay around 27 cents per kilowatt hour.

“So, the funds that would vanish, in other words, or go away if the department is disbanded, is about $720,368,” Fanucci pointed out. “The funds that are needed from taxpayers is $634,541. I then divided by 559 and that gave me an extra $1,135.14 in property taxes.”

So, based on 559 ratable properties, if the department is disbanded and no longer generating revenue, “it comes out to $1,135.14 in extra property tax every residential unit would have to make up,” she emphasized.

“It doesn’t sound good, it really doesn’t,” Fanucci said.

However, according to Fanucci, after studying a “763 kilowatt hour bill” assessed to a JCP&L customer that she obtained for purposes of performing the analysis, “if we went to JCP&L, the “rate would go down in

your electric,” which would offset at least a portion of that theoretical tax increase that would be needed to make up the difference.

She noted that while in addition to a 9-cent per kilowatt hour charge, JCP&L has other additional charges it assesses to its customers, including a delivery service fee, the utility’s bill assessed to the customer was $107.28 for the month, while if the borough’s 22 cent per kilowatt hour rate had been assessed to that same customer for their usage, they would have paid $174.86, or “$67.58 more.”

“Multiply that by 12 months, and that is a savings $810.96,” meaning the theoretical increase in property taxes for that individual, in using the $1,135.14 figure, would be approximately $324.18, or what she called “almost a wash, whether we stay or go.”

Fanucci noted, however, that “it depends on how big your electric bills are, whether you would see a true savings” and that the “bigger your bill is, the more you would save obviously going with JCP&L.” “Another angle” to all of this, as the councilwoman put it, is “if you get rid of the electric company,” the borough “might have vehicles to sell to get a one-time cash infusion,” and “another upside” is that the borough office workers, “if you didn’t have an Electric Department,” would not have to spend their time “doing the billing, collecting or getting (payments) out of the chute.”

“They would have time to spend on other things,” she said of the potential for cost savings.

Jerome, however, given his council tenure and oversight of the borough’s Electric Department, would presumably have significant influence on any future council decision.

“I certainly would welcome any and all analysis of the borough Electric Department,” he said in response to Fanucci and Fenster having released the results of their preliminary analysis. “And there are probably few customers who pay more for electricity than I. But we do have to take many things into consideration, and not just the raw facts of comparing one utility to ours.”

Jerome pointed out that the borough is

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“bound by state budgetary requirements” and that there are “tax cap laws” to be mindful of when the borough goes to determine what “taxation can be done to cover a shortfall.”

“We can only raise the tax rates by certain amounts,” he declared. “So, it is kind of a Catch-22 situation.”

In addition, according to Jerome, “if we took revenue out of our budget,” the borough would be “hamstrung in trying to raise our general fund tax budget to overcome the loss” due to one of the caps in place.

“It (the borough’s Electric Department) was not something that was designed or laid out by anybody who was here (on council), or by anybody’s parents who were here,” Jerome added. “It happened a long time ago when the borough made its own power in this town.

Then new state legislation came in on top of that, and it really does, aside from utility side of things – from the taxation and economic

side, make it very tough to do anything very much different than what we are doing now.

“I am not saying it is not welcome, and I am not saying it is something that we have not already analyzed, but I am just giving a little bit more information in regard to our actual, true situation on the ground.”

Griffin immediately blurted out a “thankyou” to Jerome, with Fanucci, prior to his comments, acknowledging that there are “certain things” she hasn’t yet “figured out” in doing the preliminary analysis, which was based on “partial” figures from the Electric Department’s finances. If she gets “more information,” she said she will “present it at a later meeting.”

Fanucci, following the meeting, told this newspaper that it appears “we don’t have the capacity at this time” to dissolve the Electric Department and move to JCP&L due to the cap constraints, as pointed out by Jerome.

Page 12 ♦

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Farah Ahmad, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) deputy under secretary for Rural Development (second from left), joins with Deborah leaders, as well as state and local leaders, to tour Deborah’s $108 million construction expansion project, financed by USDA Rural Development.

HOSPITAL

(Continued from Page 4) Deborah, according to hospital officials, is located in a “federally-designated, medically underserved rural area” by being located in the northwestern part of Burlington County.

The hospital, celebrating more than 100 years of a mission to provide access to all regardless of ability to pay, serves a key role, providing access to high quality specialty care for residents in Burlington, Ocean, Mercer and surrounding counties.

During COVID-19, Deborah provided

nearly 9,000 vaccinations at its clinic, and opened one of the first post-COVID recovery clinics in the tristate area.

According to the USDA, nearly 800,000 rural residents fall within Deborah’s service area.

In addition to the grant announcement, Ahmad toured Deborah’s $108 million construction expansion project, financed by USDA Rural Development with an $88 million Community Facilities Loan and $10 million Community Facilities Loan Guarantee.

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Photo Provided

Assemblyman Brandon Umba (NJ-8); state Commissioner of Health, Judith Persichilli; Assemblywoman Carol Murphy (NJ-7); Jane Asselta, New Jersey State Director, USDA Rural Development; and Farah Ahmad, deputy under secretary, USDA Rural Development. renovation work which will allow Deborah to upgrade existing patient rooms to include the same state-of-the-art features provided in the new floors, create a new pharmacy clean-room, and allow for additional upgrades to the cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology labs.

“President (Joe) Biden recently announced that on May 11 he will end the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency declarations,” said USDA Rural Development State Director Jane Asselta. “The past nearly three years have taught us of the critical need to invest in our rural healthcare

infrastructure and of the impact that accessible, quality healthcare has on the well-being of our neighbors living in small towns.”

“The USDA Rural Development New Jersey team is proud to continue to invest in and support the work of the employees at Deborah in their mission of providing outstanding care to those that come through their doors. And we are thrilled to make our first investment in Shore Medical Center and support their dedicated staff in their pursuit of providing the highest quality of care for their patients from the Atlantic County region.”

Page 14 ♦

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CANNABIS

(Continued from Page 10) day,” Tompkins said. “I personally would appreciate signage in the facility reminding some of our military individuals against military policy to use the product you going to be selling.”

The dispensary proposal is suggesting what the township mayor called “a heavy flow of traffic” and “then have Wawa, with a heavy flow coming in and out.”

“That is going to be a nightmare there, in my opinion,” said Tompkins, maintaining the area already has heavy congestion as it is. “I can’t tell you how many times I have seen cops in that parking lot because of the issue that is already there. There already is an issue without your business there.”

D’Agostino replied that the Wawa probably has the kind of traffic his store is anticipating for the entire day in just over the course of a couple hours.

In pointing out “we have 21 counties in the state, with 565 municipalities,” Dewey asserted, “I am still trying to figure out why or how you picked Pemberton Township.”

Marks, in response, reiterated, “Pemberton” is “a supportive community, and so far, the council and government have been very supportive to our cause, and they have ordinances in place that allow this sort of business to exist.”

“I feel strongly that over the course of time we can have a positive impact to the community and surrounding areas,” added Marks, with D’Agostino having earlier pointed out that of the 20 people the company plans to hire, the goal is to hire 50 percent of its workers from the township.

However, as the meeting transitioned to public comment, it became harder to demonstrate that there is “a supportive community” with the proposal drawing no support from the residents attending the meeting, with a number of people instead delivering vigorous, at times very emotional opposition to what was proposed.

One woman, named “Kelly,” said that when she hears “security,” to her it implies “danger.”

“Please don’t let it happen,” she declared.

“Please, vote ‘no.’”

Resident Leonard Austin called it a “bad idea,” asserting the township “already has got a crime rate” and such a facility would only “increase” it.

“Doors will be getting kicked in,” Austin warned. “There are a lot of hoodlums down the road, from Sunbury Village (a neighborhood with many past instances of violent crime, including gun violence), and they will follow you home when see you buy marijuana, and beat you and your family up.”

As a “medical card patient,” the victim of three strokes said he “doesn’t have a problem driving to Bordentown to get medicine,” because other w ise, allowing such an establishment closer to home, “you are asking for a problem – asking for a shootout.”

Resident Gary Kelly followed up on that point, asking, “How much is it going to cost in police, once crime goes up, because you know it is going to go up?” He maintained the money that would be generated through taxation will simply go to hiring more officers to handle the increased crime.

Resident Michael Harris, who also followed Austin, gave a more point-blank declaration, remarking, “I do not like the idea of bringing drugs into the township.”

Longtime meeting regular Anne Quinn, maintained statistics from Colorado, or one of the first states in the nation to legalize cannabis, show the state “had an increase in crime, had an increase in DUIs and had an increase in motor vehicle accidents,” including “fatal accidents involving people who tested positive for marijuana.” She maintained statistics from Colorado also show an “increase in kids, ages 12 and up, who smoke marijuana” since the

AD HOTLINE: (609) 801-2392 or SALES@PINEBARRENSTRIBUNE.COM drug has been legalized there.

“And I take exception, Mr. Gardner, to your comment that you already got your mind made up, no matter what the residents here have to say,” declared Quinn, who proclaimed she was livid with the idea as both a mom and grandmother. “And we do pay your salary, and guess what? We have an election coming up, and my goal is to remove the three of you (Gardner, Detrick and McCartney [who told Quinn she was online researching her statistics and found statistics also in contradiction to the ones Quinn presented] from the council because you never had the residents, and what is good for the town as a whole, (at heart) when you got elected!”

Quinn called it “appalling” that “council doesn’t do their homework with respect to the gentleman’s presentation.”

“And I do not want this facility, store, or anything to do with marijuana in this town – ever!” Quinn shouted. “It does not benefit this town!”

D’Agostino, during his presentation, declared that “our goal for the community is one goal – and that is to leave a positive impact.” He then provided what he called “estimates,” ones he maintained he has “high confidence” in given that “high-end Tier 1 stores in Massachusetts bring in $12 million in revenue,” showing that the local firm would generate between $100,000 and $200,000 per year in “local cannabis taxes to Pemberton Township.”

“Year one, we expect to generate a little over $100,000 in local cannabis taxes for Pemberton Township, and by year five, that grows to a little over $200,000,” pointing out that the latter estimated figure is based on an estimated $10 million in sales. “And I think it is important to note that by year two, that local tax would be as much as $175,000, and that would equate to an additional $88,000 that is provided to local non-profits.”

The latter is a reference to a plan D’Agostino announced in which Alchemy Botanics has “committed to donating one percent of sales to local non-profits to support their missions,” in addition to providing “community service hours from both their leadership and employees to support local nonprofit missions.”

While D’Agostino called his estimated figures “conservative,” Quinn retorted that they were “pitiful.”

Quinn, in continuing to express outrage, said she never heard the Democratic members of council call for more retail when the town has needed it for a while now, but now they suddenly want to “bring a marijuana store here.”

“I don’t want that for our kids!” she said angrily. “I moved here 20 years ago because it was a good school district, and good place to live! I left the City of Philadelphia for the very reason you now propose for this town! I am totally against it!”

Quinn called marijuana a “gateway drug” and told the governing body that she “speaks from my own experience” after watching a family member experience a “drug issue.”

“It started with marijuana,” Quinn said. “I watched him smoke marijuana, and watched him take the next step, and the next step and the next step. This facility is going to cost more in money because of increased crime, based on the Colorado report, which also states hospitals are overwhelmed because now there are more emergency cases with overdoses.”

Valerie Roohr, a resident of nearby Southampton Township, with grandchildren living in Pemberton Township, asserted that she “also believes this is a gateway drug,” maintaining that in encountering those battling addiction, “not one of them ever said they first started taking cocaine.”

“It always starts with marijuana,” she declared, noting that a boyfriend of hers had been found dead from drugs. “Not ‘sometimes,’ not ‘in-between,’ but ‘always!’”

That death, in particular, she maintained makes it not easy to say “yay” or “nay” to the proposal, declaring, “I am extremely against it!”

“I see kids and teenagers all smoked up in their cars because now this is legal,” Roohr added. “Drinking and driving, you can’t do that, but you can be smoked up, and stoned off you’re a**? And it is OK?” Only intensifying tensions in council chambers is when McCartney remarked, in a rebuttal, that “I wish I had an argument about sugar, because it is eight times more addicting than heroin,” with the councilwoman also suggest that Alchemy Botanics consider Deborah for a donation.

Quinn retorted that “sugar does not cause drug problems,” and that she was outraged “none of you did your homework,” or that the Democratic members did not consider a “clear increase in crime, ER visits and poison control contacts” in voting for the ordinance to allow cannabis businesses in Pemberton.

Gardner responded that the “reason we decided in 2021 to ‘opt in’ is because we would have control over the number of licenses and locations,” but that caused someone to shout “that is not correct” in light of the council president not mentioning that the township could have ‘opted-out,’ and therefore, it would have not been a permitted use at all in the municipality (with an exception applying to cannabis deliveries).

The council president’s response, however, led Quinn to ask just how many cannabis businesses are actually now permitted in Pemberton Township through the local cannabis ordinance, with township Business Administrator Daniel Hornickel answering there are “six classes of licenses” and a “maximum of two licenses per class” allotted in the local ordinance. He pointed out the local ordinance “established the zones” where such licensed businesses can operate and that there are “limitations on those zones.”

“Right now, the Pinelands Commission won’t permit certain classes of licenses in 91 percent of the town, so that makes it difficult,” Hornickel added.

The business administrator, in also defending the previous council’s actions, maintained “if we didn’t ‘opt in’ and pass an ordinance … then we are subject to the general zoning requirements, which aren’t as stringent” and are “just for retail businesses.”

Gardner, at one point, asked the business administrator pointblank, “How is this (the proposal) going to affect Pemberton?”

“If a business is constructed consistent with the ordinance, and Mr. Marks and his company follow the advice of people who know what they are doing, I think this is going to be a cash flow positive for the township,” replied Hornickel, a resident of Bordentown. “I don’t see how it wouldn’t be cash flow positive. I can only draw on my own experiences with another facility in Bordentown that appears to be very well run with minimum problems.

That is my own two cents.”

Resident Michelle Forman, however, called cannabis “bad stuff,” and quipped in response to McCartney’s earlier suggestion, “If you give money to Deborah, can you donate money for oxygen machines for people who are smoking this sh** and can’t breathe?”

But that was just one of the many sharplypointed questions Forman asked of the Alchemy Botanics representatives.

“How much are you going to charge for your marijuana?” she asked. “Are you going to charge $185 for an ounce of marijuana (which she claimed was the rumored value)? You are robbing these kids blind!”

Initially, D’Agostino responded that he “couldn’t speak to what the pricing would be” and that the “retail prices would be highly dependent on where the market is at that time,” but acknowledged “an ounce of legal cannabis in New Jersey is averaging about $450.”

Shouting began to erupt in council chambers, in response, with the claim repeated that the entity was merely “robbing these kids blind.”

Forman continued to persist in asking questions of the representatives, at times refusing to stop and shouting them: “Do you like to smoke that stuff and feel good?”, “Do

LOCAL NEWS / FEATURES ♦ Page 15 you want to smoke this stuff?” and “Do you like how you feel after smoking this stuff?”

“I don’t think there are any relevant questions to the site,” D’Agostino responded.

D’Agostino emphasized to those present that there is a “very significant vetting process” ahead of any approvals with the Pemberton Township Planning Board having to hear any site plan, as well as the Burlington County Planning Board (due to county roads being adjacent to the site).

“A very high level of vetting will continue to occur on this project,” he said, pointing out the professionals that Alchemy Botanics retained have been working in the cannabis industry for quite some time, “not only in this market, but in other markets for quite some time.”

“I think that experience is very important to getting it right the first time,” he added.

“Getting it right coming out of the gate is very important, not only so it doesn’t have a negative impact on the community, but so it delivers those tax dollars back to the community and does have that positive impact presented this evening, not only contributing to the tax base, but providing back to those nonprofits.”

D’Agostino’s latter remark was in response to Gardner, in declaring he is “100 percent behind” what is proposed, adding that he asked a lot of questions of the applicant because he is the “first applicant for this township” and “we want to get it right and hopefully use your application as a blueprint somewhat.”

“I urge everyone against cannabis to Google why cannabis is illegal, and more importantly, Harry J. Anslinger (a government official who served as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics during the presidencies of Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy), and you will see cannabis became illegal in this country, not because of medical issues – it is about racism,” declared Gardner, despite the two township councilmembers who had opposed the ordinance last year having been African American. “That is why cannabis became illegal. Yes, turn your heads, sigh, but do a little research.”

That in turn led one man to shout that, “It is about taxes!”

In fur ther response to the cur rent D e m o c r at i c c ou n c i l m e mb e r ’s h i nt s throughout the meeting that they are supportive of this cannabis business being allowed in the township, Quinn quipped, “God have mercy on your soul if God forbid any kid gets hurt in this town because of what you do,” while Phillips declared, “Think about it before going to bed, ‘What am I doing for this community?’”

Ward, given the close proximity of the borough (which previously failed to opt-in) to 6 Fort Dix Road, told the Alchemy Botanics representatives that he “highly recommends you talk to mayor of Pemberton Borough,” while Dewey asserted, “during the last 16 years, prior to us being elected, the town made more steps backwards than going forward” and that while “we do need businesses in Pemberton, I don’t feel, in my heart this is what Pemberton Township needs.”

“I just can’t support it,” he said. “I am being upfront with you.”

But both Gardner and D’Agostino pointed out no matter what the council decides, “this product is legal in the state” and “will be here whether there is a store here or not.”

Pemberton Township Council, as this newspaper went to press, during its subsequent March 1 meeting, voted 3-2, along party lines, according to Hornickel, to issue the letter of support. Tompkins, despite having expressed opposition on Feb. 15, said that “if this thing gets approved,” he “wouldn’t mind a donation” being made by the firm to support township-sponsored events such as the Mirror Lake Water Carnival and National Night Out.

Page 16 ♦

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