What a year it was!
Cherry Hill Sun
1/4/2008

Here are the sights and stories of 2007 in Cherry Hill

When Cherry Hill residents look back in the history books, 2007 will be bookmarked. Debate ranged from the future of Route 70 to adult businesses to the International Baccalaureate Programme at the schools. Some notable moments included the installation of artificial turf fields for recreation, and the re-election of Mayor Bernie Platt. Following is a month-by-month summary of events in 2007.

January
The year began with a tax hike, as Township Council approved a $54 million municipal budget, which triggered a tax increase of about $100 per average household – those assessed at $140,000 – township officials said, noting that reflects a 7.4-cent increase over the last fiscal year’s figures. Following Council’s passage of the budget, the average municipal property tax bill in the township was to be $878 for a fiscal year that began July 1, 2006, and ended June 30, officials said. In January, the township also won a significant battle in its war against a businessman seeking to open a sexually oriented novelty shop next to a residential neighborhood on Route 70. Superior Court Judge Michael Kassel ruled that the property’s owner, Jim Restaino, must abide by the township’s zoning ordinance in regard to where his business can be located. Restaino argued that Cherry Hill had set up ordinances to specifically prevent him from opening his business in certain places in the township. Also, the Cherry Hill Police Department claimed yet another award for its service to the community in January, when Capt. Robert Schofield received the Camden County Freedom Medal for more than 27 years dedicated to strengthening the police force. The Camden County Board of Freeholders awards the Freedom Medal annually to members of the community whose unselfish contributions embody the dream and action of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., according to a township spokesman.

February
In February, Mayor Bernie Platt appointed 14 people to the newly-created Route 70 Task Force. The roadway – a major thoroughfare through Cherry Hill and a major headache for commuters – became the subject of heated debate in the township when Platt and the state’s Department of Transportation closed multiple median openings along the highway to conduct a two-month study on traffic flow. At the time, Phil Guerreri, president of the Erlton South Civic Association, said thinking outside of the box would be the key to coming up with solutions for improving Route 70.

March
The Cherry Hill Public Schools Board of Education voted Feb. 27 to keep the International Baccalaureate Programme in seven elementary schools and all three middle schools, while phasing it out at Cherry Hill High School West. The highly anticipated vote expressed overall support of Superintendent David Campbell’s recommendations, but included two amendments allowing Cooper Elementary School to continue offering IB and preventing another staff vote in 2008. According to Public Information Officer Susan Bastnagel, Board member Cindy Trubin suggested future boards should not be bound by the current board’s recommendations regarding the vote.

April
As they do every April, the Board of Education election and school budget vote made news this month. The Cherry Hill public school district faired well in the budget election, avoiding, by a healthy 10 percent, the fate of many surrounding communities whose budgets were defeated, according to election results provided by the Camden County clerk’s office. More than 7,200 votes were spread throughout various township polling stations, with about 4,000 people approving the $164 million budget and approximately 3,250 voting against it – a margin of nearly 750 votes. In the Board of Education election, out of the seven candidates vying for three seats available on the Board of Education, Ken Hartman, Steven Robbins and Lisa Conn took the majority of the votes. Hartman netted 20 percent of the votes, and Robbins and Conn garnered 18 percent and 19 percent of the votes, respectively, according to election results. The new board members took the reins from departing veteran BOE members John Galie, Donna Cohen and Cindy Trubin at its annual reorganization meeting, which was held May 1. In other news, the township announced this month that it was appealing a Superior Court ruling that invalidated Cherry Hill’s sex-offender-free-zone ordinance. In late February, Camden County Judge John T. McNeill opined that the township’s protective zoning ordinance – which decreed sex offenders could not lawfully reside within 2,500 feet of any place children congregate – was invalid because it pre-empted state law, fell short when subjected to due-process analysis, and violated ex-post-facto and double-jeopardy clauses in New Jersey’s Constitution.

May
It began in 2004 with a foundation stone laid into the earth by the internationally celebrated Muslim leader Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, and in May, the groundbreaking for Cherry Hill’s first mosque was held at 7 Perina Blvd. The structure, which will be erected within the next year, will join the township’s landscape of religious diversity, including synagogues, churches and Hindu and Buddhist temples. The worldwide Muslim organization Anjuman-e-Fakhri is about 60 strong in South Jersey, said the organization’s secretary and project manager for the mosque Quresh Dahodwala, who has lived in Cherry Hill for more than 30 years. “Once the mosque is built, that number will multiply,” he told The Sun at the time. Presently, the area’s Muslim community worships in their homes, Dahodwala said. With the construction of the mosque, “Cherry Hill will get a beautiful structure and a community of congregants that will be a positive addition to the township and neighboring areas,” said resident Farhat Bivjii, who sits on the township’s Zoning Board. In other May news, the Cherry Hill Public Schools Board of Education voted 8-1 to lower the fifth-grade class-size maximum back to 24 students, in addition to restoring three teaching positions that had been cut from the 2007-08 budget. BOE member Susan Badaracco was the only board member to vote against the move, noting she would not support the measure even if the money could be found elsewhere in the budget. And, by meeting’s end, the $171,000 needed to return three fifth-grade teachers to the roster was indeed found elsewhere in the budget, with board members taking the recommendation of Assistant Superintendent of Business James Riehman to tap into extra funds resulting from salary breakage – the difference between the salary of retiring employees and new hires.

June
Many parents of special-needs students in Cherry Hill’s public school district expressed their dismay in June at the elimination of about 25 educational aides for the 2007-08 school year, contending they were not informed of the staffing change. Some fear it will negatively affect their child’s Individual Education Plan. District officials say the decision to do away with some full-time, one-on-one teaching aides – in favor of assisting each special-needs student for the part of the day when they need help the most – was reached by a committee of administrators, teachers and Child Study Team members, who convened throughout the school year to examine the district’s current inclusion program (classrooms comprised of regular- and special-needs students). Seven of the aides have been eliminated from the Barclay Early Childhood Center, which services both typically developing and special-needs children, ranging in ages from 3 to 5. The program services more than 350 students, 40 percent of whom have special needs, according to school officials. The rest of the aides have been taken off next year’s rosters throughout the district’s other 12 elementary schools. Seven fewer teaching assistants at Barclay means that the kids won’t have as much needed coverage, said Stuart Chaifetz, who has a 5-year-old son with moderate autism attending Barclay’s pre-school program. He noted that his son needs someone around him throughout the day in order to stay safe and focused. At the state level, a two-bill package aimed at boosting municipal control over sexually oriented businesses was passed nearly unanimously by the state Assembly in June. Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt of Cherry Hill sponsored the legislation, along with assemblymen Louis Greenwald (D-Camden) and John McKeon (D-Essex). Lampitt (D-Camden) and Greenwald crafted the bills in the wake of a Union County businessman’s plans to convert a vacant building along Route 70 into a store selling adult novelties and videos. The small, aging structure abuts two residential neighborhoods, and many community members expressed their outrage and alarm at the venture to township officials last year. Cherry Hill was involved in a lawsuit with owner Jim Restaino, who owns a Romantic Video & Boutique in Mt. Laurel and is seeking to open a similar facility at the Route 70 location. Restaino’s attorney, Dennis Oury, could not be reached for comment at the time. McKeon signed onto the measure in response to a community-oriented fight in Essex County last year over an adult bookstore that opened along Route 46 in Fairfield. The lawmakers said they sponsored the bills in order to protect children and property owners in communities with sexually oriented businesses. The first bill – approved 75-1 with four abstentions – would authorize municipalities across the state to adopt ordinances for regulating and licensing sexually oriented businesses. The second bill, which passed 77-1 with two abstentions, would mandate that owners obtain a use variance from a municipality’s zoning board every time they want to open an adult store, and would require them to notify all property owners within 3,000 feet of the proposed sexually oriented business before presenting their plan at a public hearing.

July
Construction on a new pedestrian bridge over Route 38 near the Cherry Hill Mall and Hillview Shopping Center progressed right on schedule in July, according to the New Jersey Department of Transportation. The new bridge is taller, more attractive and comes equipped with enhanced lighting and handicap accessibility via an elevator, officials said. According to the NJDOT, the $2.7 million project includes approach ramps and stairs on the Hillview Shopping Center side of the bridge, and an elevator and stairwell on the Cherry Hill Mall side of the walkway. The project also includes the construction of two retaining walls, new sidewalks, new landscaping, new lighting and a drainage system.

August
It all began when a tree on a vacant property toppled into a neighboring yard. The seemingly insignificant event was the impetus for a bitter uproar over whether group homes for children with emotional and behavioral problems should be placed in residential communities. The fallen tree resulted in a Brookfield homeowner inquiring as to who owned the empty house on West Valleybrook Road. He learned that a private company, Scioto Properties LLC, had purchased the site and was leasing it to New Jersey MENTOR, a for-profit organization that provides therapeutic group homes throughout the state for abused or neglected children that have been removed from their families. The New Jersey Department of Children and Families awarded the company a $1.5 million contract in May to place 45 children from across the state in specially staffed homes equipped to meet their emotional and behavioral needs. Ten of the children were slated to reside in Cherry Hill, with five living in the house on West Valleybrook Road and five settling into a home on Tanforan Drive in Cherry Hill Estates. Once word of the incoming children spread through Brookfield, however, the community erupted. Many showed up at a Council meeting over the summer demanding answers from local officials. But the township had little information to offer. Like the residents, the municipality had not been informed of the group homes’ establishment. The township is not privy to private real-estate transactions, officials said at the time. Ultimately, the idea was scrapped due to community resistance. In other township news, after months of legal review, the Township Council unanimously passed a “pay-to-play” ordinance at a special meeting held on a Friday afternoon in August. The law was based on a strong model of campaign-contribution reform legislation provided to a group of local residents by the Metuchen-based Center for Civic Responsibility. The Aug. 3 vote came after months of campaigning by the Cherry Hill Pay-to-Play Reform Committee, which gathered more than 3,500 signatures from registered voters throughout the community who supported the adoption of the ordinance in the township. The new law restricts contributions to township candidates and political parties – from professionals looking to do business with Cherry Hill – to $300 per year, as well as a $500 limit on contributions to county political parties, political action committees or candidate committees that support township elections. It also imposes a limit on total political contributions from professionals to $2,500 a year, banning businesses or individuals who violate the ordinance from netting Cherry Hill contracts for four years.

September
An incentives-based recycling program was introduced to a select group of residents, township officials announced in September Community members living in the neighborhoods of Knollwood, Windsor Park West, Forest Park and Surrey Place received a letter from Mayor Platt Sept. 2 detailing the “groundbreaking” initiative. The goal of the program is to further motivate people to recycle – through a combination of convenience and rewards – in order to improve Cherry Hill’s already impressive recycling rates. The yearlong RecycleBank pilot program was to be rolled out to 850 households on Oct. 17 and 18, with each home receiving a new 96-gallon wheeled recycling container equipped with a microchip for measuring the total weight of items placed in the bin each week. Residents in the program will no longer have to separate their paper, plastic, aluminum and glass, as Recycle Bank is based on a single-stream system, offering a “one-stop-shop” for recyclable material picked up weekly by Republic Services, the township’s waste contractor.

October
There is a saying, “No pain, no gain,” but it seems that shoppers at the Cherry Hill Mall don’t seem to mind the pain of the renovations that took place there toward the end of the year. Despite major construction in and around the mall, consumers continue to shop. By the end of the year, visitors were able to enjoy the renovated space that contains first-class stores and restaurants, including Hollister Co., Crate and Barrel, The Container Store, Armani Exchange and Maggiano’s Little Italy Restaurant. “It’s Crate and Barrel’s first store in South Jersey and Container Store’s first store in Metro Philadelphia. Both of them are major additions to the shopping center,” Bob Wahlquist, senior regional manager for Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, said at the time. In other news, the crime rate increased about 11 percent in Cherry Hill in 2006, according to the Uniform Crime Report released by the state Department of Law and Public Safety in October. Violent crime increased to 107 incidents from 102 in 2005, while non-violent crime increased from 2,038 to 2,269. This increased Cherry Hill’s crime rate to 33.1 crimes per 1,000 residents in 2006, up from 29.8 in 2005. Police Lt. William Kushina noted the numbers presented in the UCR can be misinterpreted and skewed. “Those numbers don’t really say a lot,” he said at the time. “You have to look at the totality of the numbers to really see what’s going on. “You can say crime went up 10 percent and that sounds like a lot. But if there were two murders this year, murders would have gone up 100 percent. That’s kind of misleading.” Kushina said many factors can alter the crime rate in Cherry Hill every year. A close proximity to Camden can affect crime here, as well as a large influx of people during daytime hours.

November
Democrats won positions statewide in November’s general election, and Cherry Hill was a microcosm of New Jersey’s Democratic preference. Cherry Hill residents re-elected Democrat Mayor Bernie Platt and Council members N. John Amato, Dennis Garbowski and Sara Lipsett, beating out all Republican challengers. In the mayoral race, Platt received 53.5 percent of the 14,232 votes cast, with Phillip Guerrieri receiving 6,599, or 46.37 percent, according to the clerk’s office. Amato received the most votes in the Council race with 7,614, followed by Lipsett with 7,457, then Garbowski with 7,250. Nancy Ryan, Joseph Achacoso and Christopher Hammerquist came in fourth, fifth and sixth for town council, with 6,598, 6,277 and 6,016 votes, respectively, Of Cherry Hill’s approximately 47,398 registered voters, 14,531, or 30.65 percent, went to the polls, according to the municipal clerk’s office. This was above the county’s average turnout, which was 27.36 percent. Communities also preferred incumbent Democrats Pamela Lampitt and Louis Greenwald, voting for each at least 5,000 more times than Republicans Jo Ann Gurenlian and Bradley Mattson, and aiding their re-election to the General Assembly. Democrats resoundingly won the two positions up for election for the Camden County Board of Chosen Freeholders, with Edward McDonnel and Carmen Rodriguez winning 28 percent and 27.5 percent of the vote, respectively, beating out Republican rivals Gene Mignogna and Alice Wood by at least 10,000 votes each. In other news, nature lovers rejoiced this month, as Cherry Hill received more than $60,000 in grants for open space purposes in the municipality. Cherry Hill Recreation Department Manager Jim Wioland and Communication Director Dan Keashen crafted and submitted two grant proposals to Camden County before the end of the fiscal year. The county awarded Cherry Hill with two separate grants for open space purposes. Barclay Farmstead will utilize the first grant of $43,000 for roof repairs to its aging farmhouse. The farmstead, located on a 36-acre parcel of land in the township, is in need of repairs for a leaky roof and structure rehabilitation. Barclay Farmstead is owned and operated by the township and is listed on the National and New Jersey Registers of Historic Places. The second grant of $25,000, a recreation facility enhancement grant, will be used for the enhancement and creation of several hiking trails in Cherry Hill’s Colwick section along the Pennsauken Creek.

December
Several strong comments by the president of the Cherry Hill Special Education Alliance about the “negative attitude” of the Cherry Hill School District’s special education efforts prompted officials from the district to publicly defend their special education program throughout December. The comments came a day after a Nov. 27 board of education meeting where the president and several Cherry Hill parents of special needs students called for the resignation of district special education director Israela Franklin. The parents mainly decried an incident that occurred earlier this year at the A. Russell Knight Elementary School in which a special education student was placed in a padded “safe room” with a district employee to calm the student when he got upset. They also questioned the shortage of occupational therapy staff in the district as well. Stuart Chaifetz, president of the CHSEA, said at the time that the use of the “safe room” in the elementary school was just the beginning of a long line of misdeeds the current administration has taken against providing proper educational opportunities for students with special needs. In other December news, the longest-tenured councilwoman in the township’s history ended her 16-year service to Cherry Hill at the Dec. 10 township council meeting. Marlyn Kalitan – whose term of service lasted through three different mayors – participated in her last township council meeting and gave a tearful goodbye to her fellow council members at the conclusion of the meeting. Kalitan, a township resident for more than 25 years, was first elected to council in 1991. She did not run in this year’s general elections. Sara Lipsett, a Democratic newcomer, will take over Kalitan’s seat. Kalitan thanked her fellow members of council, her family and the people of Cherry Hill for reelecting her to council an unprecedented number of times for a councilwoman. The township council also unanimously passed a resolution authorizing Cherry Hill’s application for a Public Archives and Records Infrastructure Support (PARIS) grant from the state of New Jersey. If awarded, the $450,000 grant will provide the opportunity for Cherry Hill to team with Gloucester Township and Merchantville Borough to leverage money, technology and the market in an effort to electronically image vital records.