Commissioner’s Meeting 6/23

Unfortunately I was not able to attend so Tom has put some information together.

Just a note which I’m sure most of you have heard. Gary Papa, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson have passed away.

 

Commissioner Dougherty was not at the meeting.  All votes were made by Mayor Teague and Commissioner Foley.

 

At the meeting, there were 5 ordinances up for vote.

 

1235 – Water shut off fees.  This was tabled and will be reintroduced at the next meeting

 

1238 – Overnight parking – The Retrospect wrote a comprehensive article about this. http://tinyurl.com/nhw5wp

  

1239 – Alcoholic Beverages – Hours of operation – They extended the hours on Sundays for allow for our liquor stores to compete with the neighboring towns.

 

1240/1 – Capital improvement authorizations – The authorized $3,000,000 in capital improvements including new bonds to be issued

 

1242 – Salary ordinance – They gave 3.5% raises to the non union employees.  I stood up and well as another citizen stating that in this current environment, we should not be provided raises unless they are merit based

 

All of these ordinances passed unanimously. 

 

Two new ordinances were introduced

 

1243 – Special emergency appropriation – Property Revaluation Project – this is an ordinance to appropriate $530,000 to pay for a complete revaluation of the town’s real estate tax assessed values.  

 

1244 – Amending Chapter 111 – Fees – Water and Sewer Connections – They are proposing yet another increase in fees.  The increases look like they are generally about 10% except that they have over doubled the fees for new construction water and sewer connections. 

 

Relating to resolutions they hired 3 new township employees.  Interestingly, two of these people are people close to the commissioners.  One is the son of one of their contributors and supporters.  The other was a person who worked heavily on their campaign.  That person is going to work for DPW.  This was done even after George Purkins stood up last week and asked why they had bypassed a Military Veteran with a plumbing certification who has all the skills required to work in the Water and Sewer Department and that certification takes substantial effort to obtain.

 

There were a number of other contract related items also approved. 

 

Relating to the contracts for Edison Woods Drainage Improvements, the solicitor read a statement which stated that the bidding process could be construed as flawed and they will be rejecting all bids and asking for new ones.  This occurred after the 2nd lowest bidder challenged the lowest bidder. 

 

They also talked about liquor licences.  They renewed all of the licences except one.  Also Rexy’s will be transferring its license to a new owner and there is a special meeting on July 7th at 4PM to discuss that.  They also stated that there are 3 “pocket” or inactive licences including the one owned by Joanna Pang.

 

I brought up a couple of issues during the public portion.  One related to the Bird Sanctuary situation.  They removed the deed restriction on it but didn’t vote on any of the other related transactions including the land donation.  They clarified that this lifting of the deed restriction would only be signed in connection with the remainder of the transaction.

 

I also brought up the fact that NJ OPMA law required that the minutes of their meetings be release prior to the next meeting.  I agreed to send them the case law on this and asked if they would look into it.  They agreed.  Currently, minute meeting are not made available until 2 meetings after the meeting.  This is clearly a violation of the law.  Here is the link I sent them.  http://njopengovt.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-jersey-cases-regarding-prompt.html

 

Mary Burko asked about when we would see construction at Dydee and the Mayor said it was still a while off because of the environmental clean up.  I asked whether they could get Fieldstone to put all their new plans up on the web which they had promised to do at the last planning board meeting.   

 

 

  

Caucus Meeting 6/16/09

I was not able to attend so Tom sent me the update.

First, the town has been successful in its lawsuit for the Westmont Theatre.  The Commissioners discussed notifying the redevelopers who submitted proposals for an update from them.  They did not come to any resolution on that the plan is because this only occurred today.  More to follow

There will be 5 ordinances brought up next week. 

They have not finalized the water sewer shut off fee ordinance.  They are still waiting for NJ American rates to use as a guide for ours.

There is an ordinance to establish tighter overnight parking regulations.  There will be a $50/year fee for a permit. 
http://www.haddontwp.com/pdf/ordinances/1238PermitParking.pdf

There are 2 capital expenditure appropriates bills. 

They are making changes to the Salary Ordinance. 

There was a fair amount of discussion around the East Oakland Ave. property swap.  The mayor made a major statement that they needed to get this done quickly and didn’t want to go through eminent domain for the sewer easement they needed in connection with the Bettlewood project.  That is why the worked through the trade.  They will be acting on it shortly.  During the public portion, I suggested that they consider whether it makes sense to vacate the paper street (it was never build) which runs through the land while they are doing this to preserve the land indefinitely.  Also, I asked if a Phase 1 environmental assessment was done prior to taking title on the land.  One has not been done.  I also asked if it made more sense for the County to take the land and annex it onto the Newton Lake park which it abuts.

Powerful storm leaves minor damage behind

From the Courier Post

There was no time to count Mississippis during a thunderstorm that wreaked havoc on South Jersey Tuesday morning.

 Power outages, downed trees and instant flooding plagued the area as the isolated storm quickly passed through. 

“It sounded like thunder on top of thunder,” said Amanda DiCostanzo, 29, of Westmont. “The rain was coming in sideways, so that’s when I closed the windows and stepped out front to see the tree down.”

DiCostanzo and her neighbor, Bob Schmidt, 47, were shocked to see not only one large tree rip up the sidewalk in front of their houses, but two more trees fall in their backyards, causing damage to both roofs.

“It was wild,” said Schmidt, a retired police officer. “It was like a big wall of water and wind that came through.”

PSE&G crews and tree service workers were working feverishly to clear trees from houses and restore electricity in the tri-county area. About 1,000 PSE&G customers in Camden County and 350 in Burlington County were without power Tuesday, according to PSE&G officials. Schmidt and his neighbors on Memorial Avenue were told they had to wait at least 24 hours before they can turn the lights and air conditioning back on.

“I’ll have to watch the Phillies game out somewhere tonight,” DiCostanzo said. “I’m just glad nobody got hurt.”

Flooding became a major problem as rain rapidly saturated the region.

“We did have a right lane closed on Route 42 northbound for flooding between Gloucester and Washington townships this morning but not for too long, about a half hour or so,” said Tim Greeley, spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Transportation. “There were some backups due to the location, but we were able to reopen the lane in a timely manner.”

In Collingswood, a power outage kept the lights out at the intersection of Haddon and Collings avenues.

“We were chasing downed trees and flooding,” said Chief Thomas Garrity Jr. of the Collingswood Police Department. “We lost power for over an hour, but there was nothing major. We did have a lightning strike on a house on West Browning Road that the fire department checked out, but nobody was hurt.”

Another storm system was taunting the area by late afternoon Tuesday with the threat of bringing another major thunderstorm.

Today, there is a slight chance of scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms, said Valerie Meola, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Westampton.

“It clears out for Wednesday with some showers Wednesday night into Thursday,” she said. “There’s a chance of showers or thunderstorms the rest of the week, but the weekend looks clear.”

Haddon Township seemed to take the brunt of the storm as police responded to numerous reports of trees that had fallen down or into houses and electrical lines that caused power outages.

“We had an elevator rescue at Wachovia Bank because the power was cut down in the area for safety,” said Chief Mark Cavallo of the Haddon Township Police Department. “We also had stranded cars and flooded roadways.”

An arcing, fiery power line detoured traffic along Kings Highway in Haddonfield.

Schools were closed early due to flooding and power outages in Haddon Township and Camden. Students received cold lunches and were dismissed by 1 p.m.

“We had sewer line back ups because of flooding,” said Bart Leff, spokesman for Camden schools. “We should be on a regular schedule tomorrow.”

There was no major damage reported in Gloucester County, according to officials.

“We had some flooding throughout the county, but it drained away,” said Ken Shuttleworth, spokesman for Camden County. “Our 911 dispatch fielded over 500 calls during a 65-minute period, mainly related to the weather. The volume of calls was high, but they handled them.”

Burlington County reported only minor damage, including fallen tree branches and a few electrical wires.

LONEGAN STANDS UP FOR PRIVATE PROPERTY OWNERS

from PolitickerNJ.com

Hadden Twp, NJ – Conservative Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Steve Lonegan held a press conference today to discuss the unconstitutionality of eminent domain. Lonegan stood at a privately owned insurance company surrounded by abandoned lots as he blasted Trenton bureaucrats for having too much control over private property rights.

“There is more eminent domain abuse in New Jersey than any other state in the nation,” Lonegan said. “The lawmakers in Trenton think that they have a better idea how to manage your private property than you do. The American people understand what private property rights mean and we are no longer willing to put up with our rights being taken from us.”

Lonegan spoke at David Sulock and Cathy Riccardi’s insurance business that is surrounded by the empty remains of lots already taken by the city. The business is getting pressured by the city to move so it can build a retail center and restaurant.

Lonegan has a proven record of fighting eminent domain. In 2004, Lonegan fought a similar battle as Mayor, placing an eminent domain question on the ballot. Big developers came into Bogota to campaign against it and in a 2-1 Democrat town the question passed by 95%. The people of Bogota made it very clear that they deserve to have complete control of their personal property. The people of New Jersey are long overdue a governor who has a proven track record of fighting eminent domain and who will continue fight it in Trenton and that man is Steve Lonegan.

“37 states in the country have controlled eminent domain abuse,” Lonegan added. “The people of New Jersey have not been given the right to vote and Bogota is the only Borough where each resident has the right to private property. The amount of control that the government has over individual rights is alarming. As governor, I will fight eminent domain abuse and turn New Jersey around.”