 |
| Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein |
The Town Council meeting of April 10, 2018* felt a bit haphazard. Deputy Mayor Hackman was not in attendance, and Councilor D'Andrea needed to leave early, so some portions of the meeting were rushed, and others were done out of order of the agenda - as per the Town Attorney Gillespie, while certain items can be voted on with only three council members, others required at least 4. These items were moved to the top of the agenda.
Yet despite the time constraints, ample time was provided for presentations. The first presentation was from Sandy Student, who presented a plaque to the Evesham Celebration Foundation for their support of the Police Unity Tour. Both Mr Student and Town Manager Barth participated in the annual 300 mile bike ride to benefit fallen officers. The stated mission of the Police Unity Tour is to raise awareness of Law Enforcement Officers who have died in the line of duty, and to raise funds for the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial and Museum.
Following Mr Student, the champion Cherokee Ice Hockey team was invited up for recognition for their victory in the South Jersey High School League tournament. They had a slow start to the year at 3 and 3, but then went on an 11 game winning streak, finishing 2nd in the regular season. They lost their first game in the double elimination playoffs, but won the final game in overtime to take the trophy.
Chief Chew then gave a presentation on state of the police department. The department recently received its 2nd CALEA accreditation, considered the Gold Standard for Law Enforcement Agencies. The Evesham Police Department is one of 9 districts in New Jersey that are accredited, and one of only 483 in the country.
During the year, the following accomplishments were achieved:
- Issued Tasers to all patrol officers
- Purchased a new K9 officer
- Participated in Cancer Awareness activities, including pink badges and 'No Shave November'
- Participated in 275 community outreach events comprising over 3000 hours
- Became the 1st police department in the state to upgrade Body Worn Cameras, which are now synced with cameras in their vehicles. The cameras store footage in the cloud, saving money on CD storage
- Established an Officer Wellness program with physical fitness testing and available psychological counseling
Chief Chew also gave police statistics over the past year:
- 3% decrease in calls, to 31,219 calls
- Arrests down 1% to 1,677
- Burglaries down 13%
- Theft down 15%
- DWI down 17%, with no fatalities from DWI
- Crashes down 3%
- Use of force up 105%, from 35 to 76 incidents
- Fatal ODs up 400%, from 2 to 12 (the math doesn't work on that, I'm going to have to follow up on that)
- OD Investigations up 105%
- Narcan Deployment up 125%
Following Chief Chew, Ordinance 7-4-2018 was passed by a vote of 4-0. This was for a $5,000,000 bond to fund capital improvement projects, including over 50% of that for road repair. The rest goes towards sidewalk repair, Blue Barn Door Replacement, automatic Library Doors installation, infield regrading at the Diamonds, renovations at the Gibson House, storm basins in Mayfair, and work on Union Mill Dam.
Ordinance 8-4-2018 was passed by a vote of 4-0. This allows for a $320,000 bond for upgrades at Indian Springs Golf Course. This was detailed at the last town council meeting. Money is being allocated at this time, with projects to be approved at a later date. The two projects previously discussed are adding a set of closer tees to appeal to women and family golfers, and adding heaters to the driving range to add approximately 2 additional months to 'driving range season'. The new tees are estimated to have a 2-5 year return on investment (the tees will pay for themselves via additional rounds of golf within 2-5 years). The return on investment for the heaters is approximately 1-2 years.
A third project was also discussed, adding a Miniature Golf course near the Gibson House, along with a food area near both the Mini Golf course and the driving range.
Resolution 121-2018 was passed by a vote of 3-0, with Mayor Brown abstaining. No reason was given for the abstention. This resolution authorizes the Town Planning Board to make an investigation as to whether a property near Target off Route 73 qualifies as a "Non-Condemnation Redevelopment Area", The property is shown highlighted below, The property stretches from Evesham Road, around Bradley Funeral Home, behind houses on Glenview Court, up to the Marlton Executive Campus off Route 73.
 |
| Property from Evesham Road to Route 73 (in blue). The Target parking lot is in the bottom center of the photo. |
 |
| Marlton Executive Campus, pictured from Route 73 |
It would appear that the only difference between a Condemnation Redevelopment Area and a Non-Condemnation area is that Eminent Domain cannot be used on a Non-Condemnation area. This change "allows municipalities with no intention or exception of using eminent domain to designate a redevelopment area and use all of the other statutory tools without causing undue concern in the community or potentially bogging down the process with years of litigation."
The resolution notes that the site originally received approval in 2001 for construction of 5 buildings, but only two were built. The rest of the property has remained vacant despite attempts by the owner to either develop or sell the property.
 |
| Two campus buildings in bottom center. Parking lots just north, plus a lot of woods and a pond. |
A few of the consent agenda items were pulled out at this point and voted on separately. Resolutions 137-2018, 144-2018, 147-2018 and 148-2018. 137-2018 passed by a 4-0 vote, and the remaining three passed with a 3-0-1 vote, with Mr Zeuli abstaining (no reason given).
After the vote, Councilman D'Andrea left the meeting.
Resolutions 155-2018 and 156-2018 were discussed briefly, and Chief Chew was brought back to the podium. The resolutions provide Class 3 SRO Officers for all 8 Evesham Township schools as well as St Joan of Arc. Chief Chew stated that interviews have begun. Forty candidates applied and 10 candidates were identified as potential officers and are undergoing background checks. If the results are satisfactory, their names and qualifications will be given to Township Manager Barth for employment stating 9/1. (I confirmed with Chief Barth Chew after the meeting that it was indeed 9 officers, that there will be one at all schools, including one each at DeMasi Elementary and DeMasi Middle. This is a change from prior years, where one officer was split between the two schools. UPDATED 5/22/2018 - It was Chief Chew I spoke with, not Chief Barth)
Resolution 122-2018 passed by a vote of 3-0. This allows the construction of a 68 unit Age Restricted Affordable Housing Development on Stow Road. I previously documented this site in a prior blog post, which I updated after this Town Council meeting.
The rest of the resolutions passed with a 3-0 vote. Included in that was the award of a contract for the building of a sidewalk outside Inglis Gardens up to Ross Way.
With that, the policy part of the meeting was over and the 'Around the Horn' portion began. Solicitor Gillespie made note of the fact that the civil case against Mayor Brown, the township and 3 school board members had been dismissed. He read a few paragraphs from the judges decision finding no evidence that federal civil rights had been violated.
The last speaker of the night was the Mayor. He sounded angry as he stated that all of the employees of the town work really hard to make Evesham better, despite the criticism they receive. (I struggled with how and whether to include this next sentence in the summary of the meeting. So I will keep it brief.) He then mentioned me, and this blog. "I want to credit you... I appreciate you put facts out there... You provide a service to the community."
Then, sadly, the Mayor went to his usual bashing of the School Board and School Administration. He began by saying he was 'extending an olive branch, because I'm in such a giving mood'. I am still trying to find a dictionary definition of 'olive branch' that would explain the statements that followed.
As is his habit, Mayor Brown provided factual numbers devoid of context. He noted that Beeler, Rice and Van Zant had 568, 569 and 520 students respectively, but only one principal per school. As far as I know, those schools have only ever had one principal per school, even during peak enrollment of the 2002-3 school year. During peak enrollment, with over 3,500 kids in the district and 7 elementary schools, the average school would have over 500 kids. In actuality, with DeMasi Elementary being a much smaller school, the remaining schools would have been well over 500 children, and I don't think the number of principals was ever brought up as an issue.
"We all can agree that a mistake was made a couple of years ago", stated Mayor Brown, referring the decision to close Evans. There is "gonna be a need for expansion at some point." Neither of those statements is true. The demographic study Town Council commission notes that 2018 will be peak enrollment and that enrollment will decline going forward. There is no evidence to support the need for an expansion in the future.
Mayor Brown then talked about class sizes, and noted that there were a few classes with between 22 and 24 children at MES, Rice and Demasi. This again is true. As I noted in a blog post devoted to enrollment numbers back in October, "Last year (with Evans still open), there were 45 K-5 classrooms with more than 20 children. This year, there are 20. They are concentrated in the upper grade (3rd grade has 6, 4th grade has 4, and 5th grade has 9)." Those number have changed slightly since October; there are now 22 classes, still well below the 45 from last year.
Simple mathematical truths explain why there are classes with more than 20 students. Regardless of how many schools are open, there will always be occasions when, for example, there are 64 students in a grade. Do you make 4 classes of 16 students? Or 3 classes of 21? What if there are 42 students? Do you make 2 classes of 21 students, or 3 classes of 14?
Despite some classes being over 20 students, average class size is down. This again is from my blog in October. These numbers may have changed slightly since then.
District wide, looking at general education classrooms in primary grades 1-5, there are currently 2,203 students across 115 classrooms, as of the March 29, 2018 enrollment figures. That makes the average class size 19.2 students.
* Post updated on 5/2/2018 to reflect that the meeting took place on 4/10/2018, not 4/8/2018
Previous blog posts
 |
| Existing sidewalk at Inglis Gardens in red. Newly awarded contract for new sidewalk in yellow. Eventual goal is a sidewalk all the way to 7-11 (and shopping center) indicated by arrow. |
With that, the policy part of the meeting was over and the 'Around the Horn' portion began. Solicitor Gillespie made note of the fact that the civil case against Mayor Brown, the township and 3 school board members had been dismissed. He read a few paragraphs from the judges decision finding no evidence that federal civil rights had been violated.
The last speaker of the night was the Mayor. He sounded angry as he stated that all of the employees of the town work really hard to make Evesham better, despite the criticism they receive. (I struggled with how and whether to include this next sentence in the summary of the meeting. So I will keep it brief.) He then mentioned me, and this blog. "I want to credit you... I appreciate you put facts out there... You provide a service to the community."
Then, sadly, the Mayor went to his usual bashing of the School Board and School Administration. He began by saying he was 'extending an olive branch, because I'm in such a giving mood'. I am still trying to find a dictionary definition of 'olive branch' that would explain the statements that followed.
As is his habit, Mayor Brown provided factual numbers devoid of context. He noted that Beeler, Rice and Van Zant had 568, 569 and 520 students respectively, but only one principal per school. As far as I know, those schools have only ever had one principal per school, even during peak enrollment of the 2002-3 school year. During peak enrollment, with over 3,500 kids in the district and 7 elementary schools, the average school would have over 500 kids. In actuality, with DeMasi Elementary being a much smaller school, the remaining schools would have been well over 500 children, and I don't think the number of principals was ever brought up as an issue.
"We all can agree that a mistake was made a couple of years ago", stated Mayor Brown, referring the decision to close Evans. There is "gonna be a need for expansion at some point." Neither of those statements is true. The demographic study Town Council commission notes that 2018 will be peak enrollment and that enrollment will decline going forward. There is no evidence to support the need for an expansion in the future.
Mayor Brown then talked about class sizes, and noted that there were a few classes with between 22 and 24 children at MES, Rice and Demasi. This again is true. As I noted in a blog post devoted to enrollment numbers back in October, "Last year (with Evans still open), there were 45 K-5 classrooms with more than 20 children. This year, there are 20. They are concentrated in the upper grade (3rd grade has 6, 4th grade has 4, and 5th grade has 9)." Those number have changed slightly since October; there are now 22 classes, still well below the 45 from last year.
Simple mathematical truths explain why there are classes with more than 20 students. Regardless of how many schools are open, there will always be occasions when, for example, there are 64 students in a grade. Do you make 4 classes of 16 students? Or 3 classes of 21? What if there are 42 students? Do you make 2 classes of 21 students, or 3 classes of 14?
Despite some classes being over 20 students, average class size is down. This again is from my blog in October. These numbers may have changed slightly since then.
District wide, looking at general education classrooms in primary grades 1-5, there are currently 2,203 students across 115 classrooms, as of the March 29, 2018 enrollment figures. That makes the average class size 19.2 students.
* Post updated on 5/2/2018 to reflect that the meeting took place on 4/10/2018, not 4/8/2018
Previous blog posts