What a year it’s been
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
12/29/2010
The year 2010 is on its way out and Cherry Hill – as well as the rest of the world – is ushering in 2011 and getting ready for a new year.
It was a year of budget difficulties and economic turmoil in the township as the state cut aid at nearly all levels to Cherry Hill. Through the entire year the two governing bodies had to deal with budgetary and state aid cuts at all levels, with the Board of Education losing more than $2 million from the state.
Shared services were also a necessity, as the township and several bordering municipalities reached out and ushered in some new cooperative agreements to save taxpayers money.
The township also lost a young hero as lance corporal Jeremy Kane sacrificed his life on the field of battle in early 2010. In honor of the hero’s life, a park in the township was memorialized after the resident.
Here’s what else happened in 2010.
January
To begin 2010 three new democrat candidates took their seats on the Township Council at the reorganization meeting, being sworn into the three open seats they won in the 2009 general elections. Incumbent candidate David Fleisher also defended his seat.
Fleisher had the most votes of any candidate, his 11,516 votes the only total to crack the 11,000 mark. The people spoke out in favor of the Democrats’ endorsement of positive change, he said, which was reflected in the final election results.
Jim Bannar finished with the second most votes, at 10,827. Jacquelene Silver, 10,729 votes, and Susan Shin-Angulo, 10,615 votes, rounded out the new council members.
Nancy O’Dowd, former board of education member, led the Republican candidates with a total of 10,141 votes. Phil Guerrieri Sr. had the second most votes with 10,115. Susan Badaracco, 9,956, and Dan Loveland Sr., 9,694, were the final two candidates.
After being sworn in by New Jersey State Assemblyman Louis D. Greenwald, Angulo became the first Korean-American woman to ever win a seat in government in the state.
While there have been several Korean-American men to hold various governmental positions in the state, the Center for American Women and Politics in Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics said Angulo is the first female government official of Korean descent to serve in any of the state’s elected public offices.
The Board of Education also held the first of its annual public budget meetings and spoke of a difficult budgetary season ahead. However, nobody in the school district predicted how difficult this year’s budget would actually be.
One of Cherry Hill’s own made the ultimate sacrifice for his country in late January as Jeremy Kane was killed in action while stationed in Afghanistan. The young lance corporal was shipped out to Afghanistan with his marine unit in late 2009, said his mother Melinda Kane. He was killed in action when a suicide bomber attacked his unit.
Kane, 22, held a desire to join the armed forces after the terroristic attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, his mother said. But, he had always harbored an interest in the military as his father, Bruce, had served as a major in the Army and received his medical education through the Army. Unfortunately Bruce died in June 2008 while Kane was receiving his Marine training.
February
It was a long and expensive winter season for Cherry Hill in 2010, as another blizzard hit the region this month. Cherry Hill saw over 60 inches of snow in the winter, which amounted to one of the costliest cleanups in recent memory for the township.
This past storm cost the township about $150,000, Chief of Staff Dan Keashen estimated. Luckily it was on a weekday so overtime costs were limited, he said. The storm on Dec. 19 to Dec. 21 cost the township about $171,000 due to fuel costs, product costs, and overtime, he said.
Keashen also came under fire in February after the Courier-Post reported he had lied about the whereabouts of Mayor Bernie Platt during the early February snowstorm. The Courier-Post reported that Keashen told a reporter Platt had been around during the storm and had gone on a ride-along with Township Department of Public Works vehicles as they cleared streets.
During the snowstorm the mayor was on vacation in Florida, something he has traditionally done for entire month of February the past 15 years, Platt said.
Keashen said he “misspoke” about Platt’s whereabouts. After residents criticized Platt for being away during the emergency, Platt said he would reevaluate his vacation length in the future.
The school district also received shocking news this month as the state announced it would withhold about $4 million in aid to the Cherry Hill School District. The district faced more than a $20 million deficit for the 2010-2011-school budget.
The state’s decision to withhold about $4 million in state aid for the district forced Cherry Hill to use its excess fund balance of $3.5 million – something the board had earmarked for taxpayer relief in 2010-11 – to make up for the lack funding.
March
Anthony Saccomanno was sentenced in the beginning of March to 22 months in federal prison. The former director of the department of code enforcement pled guilty in June of 2008 to accepting bribes on two separate occasions from a Building Inspection Underwriters Inc. employee.
U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb sentenced Saccomanno, 67 at the time, to prison for accepting a bribe of $2,500 from a BIU official on Sept. 20, 2007 and a $2,000 bribe from an official in July of 2008. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $20,000.
Adding to the year’s budget difficulties the state also announced that municipal aid would be cut for 2010. Cherry Hill – which crafts its budget under a fiscal year format – stood to lose about $2.3 million in state aid for the next fiscal year. Last year the township received a little more than $11 million in state aid.
The BOE followed suit as well and passed a preliminary budget that laid off the equivalent of more than 105 full-time employees from the district. It also reduced programs, operations, and capital programs for a grand total of almost $12.5 million.
It also set the $165 million budget’s tax levy at a 4 percent increase, the highest legally allowed by the state.
April
Ending one of the most contentious and difficult budgetary seasons the 2010-2011 Cherry Hill School District budget was passed in the beginning of the month.
The $166.76 million budget featured an increase in the tax levy by 4 percent and an increase in the tax rate by 9 cents. The average assessed home in Cherry Hill expected an increase in its tax bill by about $122, Business Administrator Jim Devereaux said.
The budget passed by a vote of 8-1, with Board Member Kenneth Hartman casting the only vote against the budget. Board Member Eric Goodwin and President Lisa Conn cast their votes via Skype, as they were not able to attend the meeting in person.
However, township voters would later go on to defeat the budget by more than 400 votes just several weeks later in the April 20 school district elections. The budget was then transferred to the township council for review.
Three board of education candidates also ran for three open seats on the Cherry Hill Board of Education. Candidate Sherrie L. Cohen received the most votes with 6,473, Lynette Howard was second with 6,353, and incumbent Steven Robbins was third with 6,308 votes.
Finally, Police Chief Charlie Jones retired in late April. Platt announced the nomination of Lt. Richard DelCampo, a 31-year law enforcement veteran. He cited DelCampo’s ability to lead and his global knowledge of the Cherry Hill Police Department as a main reason for his promotion.
May
After being defeated in the elections, the township council suggested reducing the $166.76 million school district budget by an additional $2.5 million.
Council suggested $800,000 be reduced from administration costs, a section of the budget that many members of council and Platt criticized for being too bloated.
“But, even as good as those teachers are, they are overshadowed by the cost of the administration in our school district. I got the emails, letters and phone calls complaining about the number of assistant principals, the salaries of the administration, and the amount of non-teacher support staff,” Platt said. “Our superintendent makes almost $100,000 more than the governor of this state.”
Council also suggested reducing budgeted salary increases by $800,000, the Blueprint curriculum initiative by $400,000, and $500,000 out of breakage to be returned to the taxpayers of Cherry Hill.
In response, the board of education approved cuts in several areas, with salary reductions for district employees topping in at the highest with $600,000. Breakage – teachers retiring and being replaced with new teachers at lower salaries – was second with $500,000.
Administration reductions came in third at $294,000
Senior officers in the township welcomed good news as the Superior Officers Association negotiated a new three-year deal with the township in May, which included a wage freeze for 2010 and modest cost of living adjustments for 2011 and 2012. The Cherry Hill PBA and FOP – which represent the majority of township police officers – were still negotiating for new contracts.
The SOA consists of police officers with a rank of sergeant and above. The three-year deal includes a 2 percent bump in salary for 2011 and a 2.5 percent bump for 2012.
Officers in the SOA will also pay 2.5 percent of their salaries into their health care benefits.
June
An unidentified man drowned in the Cooper River on June 3 and his family contacted authorities that night after they reportedly lost site of the swimmer in the river. Several marine units from nearby municipalities launched a search effort and eventually found the body about 30-minutes after the family contacted authorities.
Cherry Hill, Collingswood, Pennsauken and Westmont had units on the scene.
Keashen said the fire department and its marine unit worked closely with the three other units and did an exemplary job. He also confirmed that the incident was ruled a suicide.
In other bad news the police department lost six junior officers as they were laid off after the Cherry Hill Policemen’s Benevolent Association Local 176 turned down a contract offer from the township. The township had given the local union a deadline to accept the offer, or the layoffs would be made.
The junior officers had joined the Cherry Hill police force in 2008.
The township also announced that tax bills throughout the township would be increasing for the next quarter. A resident with an average assessed home at $140,000 saw their tax bill increase by about $49.
It’s an increase of about 7 cents per every $100 of assessed property value. In the wake of the tax increase, Platt said the township work force would be reduced by 10 percent, putting the total number of employees at just under 300. Since 2006 Cherry Hill has let go more than 50 employees in the face of steadily declining revenue streams and increased mandates from the state.
July
The Cherry Hill Atlantic Little League celebrated its 40th year anniversary in the township in early July. It’s certainly gotten bigger since the first season in 1970, chuckled little league President Charlie Miracola, as he looked back on the 40 years. Today the Atlantic League serves over 700 boys and girls in their various divisions. The recent resurgence of the girls’ softball division in the league has done well to increase the numbers, he said.
In 1985 when Miracola first joined the league as a volunteer, he said the organization only had about 400 kids.
Dr. David Campbell, superintendent of the Cherry Hill School District, announced in July that the 2010-2011 school year would be his final year of service for the district. His final day in the district has been announced for June 30, 2011.
The administrator has served as Cherry Hill’s superintendent since 2006. His contract was extended last year through 2011.
Also, members of council honored a longtime township volunteer after he announced his retirement from both the township zoning board and historical commission.
Tom McCallum accepted a proclamation from Platt and thanked the council for honoring his more than two decades’ worth of volunteerism to Cherry Hill. He served 21 years on the historical commission and 14 on the zoning board.
Platt also announced in the end of July that weekly night court sessions in the township would not be held anymore. It was one of the first of several changes in 2010 designed to reduce costs in Cherry Hill.
The township announced it will no longer offer any night court session and will instead reduce the program to three day-court sessions per week. Additionally, there will also be two Friday daytime sessions every month.
August
In early August it was revealed that both municipalities would explore the possibility of a merger between Cherry Hill Township and the Borough of Merchantville.
Keashen confirmed that Platt and Merchantville Mayor Frank North recently took a meeting and discussed the possibility of the two entities merging into one. A study would have to be completed, Keashen said, to determine the possible aspects of the merge.
A Merchantville citizens group that brought a petition to a June council meeting with 467 signatures, all supporting a merger, brought up the idea of a merger. In a letter to Merchantville residents, North said the petition expressed citizen worries over the future of the borough’s economy, the elementary school cutbacks from the state, and the sending/receiving agreement with the Pennsauken Public School District and its high school.
If the two merge, Merchantville children could attend Cherry Hill schools.
After 17 months of negotiations Cherry Hill teachers went into the school year with new contracts. The board of education voted unanimously to ratify new three year contracts for Cherry Hill Education Association employees retroactive to 2009-2010.
Retroactively, the 1,100 members of the CHEA will see a salary increase for the first contract year, 2009-10, at 2.82 percent. The increase for the second contract year, 2010-11, is 2.93 percent, and the increase for the final year, 2011-12, is 3.26 percent.
Members of the CHEA began paying 1.5 percent of their salaries this past spring as an insurance premium contribution. Factoring that into the salary increases, BOE President Seth Klukoff said for 2010-2011 the average increase would only be 1.52 percent.
The end result, Klukoff said, is nearly cost-neutral for Cherry Hill residents.
The district also negotiated a change in its health insurance carrier and benefit levels, Klukoff said, which will result in $6 million saved in the last two years of the contract.
September
Starting the month off was good news for township taxpayers. Members of council accepted the introduction of the 2011 fiscal year budget that included a tax reduction for the average assessed tax payer in Cherry Hill for the second quarter.
The council unanimously agreed to accept the introduction of the 2011 fiscal year budget. Fleisher said the governing body could now get to work on the document and identify ways to bridge the deficit further.
The average taxpayer with a home assessed at $140,000 saw a decrease of $13 in their municipal tax bill for the second quarter.
The township also received a state grant of nearly $2,000 from the New Jersey American Water Environmental Grant Program for the construction of nine rain barrels.
Eight rain barrels will be constructed at Croft Farms, Keashen said, with an additional barrel slated for the town hall as well.
Keashen also volunteered for a new position as the Executive Director of the Cherry Hill Democratic Committee. The volunteer position is wholly separate from his township duties, he said.
Keashen said he was asked by former co-chairs of the committee Pamela Lampitt and Richard Shapiro to take the position. Lampitt and Shapiro recently stepped down as the co-chairs for the committee and were replaced by council member Bannar.
After criticism from several local Republicans and residents, Keashen stepped down from the position in October.
October
Cherry Hill and the Borough of Merchantville agreed to a unique shared service at the start of the leaf season. Cherry Hill and Merchantville have teamed forces to allow the borough to dispose of its leaves at the department of public works’ composting facility at a discounted rate.
Cherry Hill Department of Public Works Director Steve Musilli announced that the township would be taking in all of Merchantville’s leaves during the fall season. Typically Merchantville hauls its leaves each year to the Gloucester Township composting facility, but Musilli said Cherry Hill agreed to take the leaves at a rate of $2 per cubic foot, a dollar less than the Gloucester Township rate.
Merchantville typically collects about 800 cubic yards of leaves a season, Musilli said. That’s about 1 percent of what Cherry Hill collects each season, he said, which is typically between 75,000 to 80,000 cubic yards of leaves.
Continuing the shared services trend, Cherry Hill, the Borough of Merchantville, and Gloucester Township – as well as the Cherry Hill School District and Fire District – joined together to go out for a cooperative purchasing agreement that will allow the towns to collectively bid on solid waste-collection services.
The municipalities combined serve more than 140,000 residents through its trash collecting services. The mayors did not have a concrete figure for how much they expected to save through the new contracts, but upwards of a 10 percent savings could be a reality. All three mayors said the cost-cutting measures would results in tax savings for municipal residents.
In BOE news member Lynette Howard surrendered herself to Cherry Hill Police in October while facing charges of theft, a third degree crime. An initial report was filed against her on July 9 by board members of the First Baptist Church in Cherry Hill.
According to Cherry Hill Police Officer William Kushina, Howard was charged with theft-by-deception for her role in “creating or reinforcing a false impression specifically by working as the treasurer of the church and paying personal expenses without knowledge or authorization of the church.” The charges claim that Howard stole more than $70,000 from the church in her role as the organization’s treasurer.
In the face of the charges, Howard later resigned from the BOE.
November
A woman simply known as “Gretchen W.” settled a class action lawsuit she filed against the Cherry Hill Police Department before the case went to trial, according her lawyer, Joseph Osefchen.
The woman filed the suit after she alleged that the police department videotaped her without her knowledge while she was using the bathroom at the department.
The 42-year-old woman had been arrested for refusing a breathalyzer test after a motor vehicle stop more than a year ago.
The plaintiff maintains that there were no signs reading that there was a recording device in the restroom and nobody revealed to her that she would be monitored.
She used the restroom twice during the night, the lawsuit maintained, and she was subjected to videotaping both times.
The suit was settled after the department agreed to post a sign by the bathroom warning people in custody that they would be videotaped while using the facilities. The woman was also awarded several thousand dollars in attorney fees to be paid by the township.
The township will pay her more $31,000 in legal fees and possibly an additional $7,000 for other expenses, Osefchen said.
Platt, members of council, and Camden County officials were on hand for a park dedication in November for the late Lance Cpl. Jeremy Kane. Woodcrest Park was dedicated to the Cherry Hill native in honor of his service.
Finally, in a sparsely attended public hearing for the 2011 fiscal year budget, Platt updated the township residents on the effort of council to reduce costs and keep spending at an even level from last year’s budget. The next step is for the township committee to pass the final fiscal year document.
With the nationwide recession and increased expenses from the state, Platt said the township has put most of its efforts into cutting costs to keep municipal taxes at an acceptable level for township residents.
Platt referenced Trenton’s old slogan, “What Trenton makes the world takes,” and said in today’s climate the slogan should simply be changed to “Trenton takes.”
Expenses in the township are down by more than $3 million, Platt reported. The township has gone from an employee force of 351 in 2006 to 294 presently, Platt said.
December
The township said goodbye to a 10-foot high, several ton green dinosaur that had kept watch over Route 70. The kitschy piece of roadside art had its last day as an attraction on the highway in late November as it was purchased by a man from Newark, Del., who finds interest in “strange and different” items.
Eric Mayer paid $1,500 for the green dinosaur statue that once welcomed golfers to the Old-Pro miniature golf course at the site. After Old-Pro went out of business in the mid-90s the dinosaur was left behind and moved to its perch alongside Route 70 by Lee’s Stone Yard.
Comly Auctioneers, an auction house in Philadelphia, held the auction. The auction was part of a larger sale of an 11.5 acre piece of property that was formerly Lee’s Stone Yard. Mayer is an avid fan of auctions and was notified of the event by the auction house.
The empty seat on the BOE was filled as Carol Matlack was chosen to serve out the remaining few months of the seat. The seat was vacated when Howard resigned from her position while facing legal issues.
Matlack’s position on the board will run until April 2011.
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