Evesham Town Council 2/5/2019 Summary - Controlled Burn in Black Run, Vehicle Burglaries and the Youth Advisory Council

A Town Council meeting was held on February 5, 2019 and began with a presentation by Fire Chief Carl Bittenbender regarding an upcoming controlled burn in the south side of town.  Chief Bittenbender was joined by Division Warden Tom Gerber of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.   The NJ Forest Fire Service will be the lead agency for the planned burn with the Evesham Fire Department in a support role, providing assistance as needed.  The burn is being done at the request of the Friends of the Black Run, who applied for a permit for the burn.  The benefits of the controlled burn is that it reduces fuel for any unplanned fire, and leaves the area in better condition for wildlife and future forest growth.  A planned fire moves much slower that a wildfire, allowing it to be contained.  There was been no major burn in more than 2 decades, which increases the risk of a wildfire.

The burn will be conducted over approximately 500 acres: 200 acres east of Kettle Run Road near Bortons Mill Road in the Black Run, 200 acres west of Kettle Run Road (private owner), and 86 acres southeast of the Sanctuary (private owner).  The burn is anticipated to be conducted in the beginning of March, though it will be dependent on weather – conditions need to be dry with light winds.  It will take about 5-7 days of burning.  There will be smoke in the area during the burn and visitation to the Black Run may be affected.  Portions of the area will smolder for days until a soaking rain arrives in the area.  During the smoldering period, the area will be under watch and fire breaks are used to ensure there is no unplanned extension of the fire.

Updates on the burn will be published on all the local town sites and Facebook Pages (Evesham Township, Evesham Township Police, Evesham Township Fire-Rescue, Mayor Jackie Veasy).  If you want to be informed about the fire, you should probably ‘like’ at least one of those pages.  I will also provide updates on my 'A View From Evesham' page.

Next on the agenda was a proclamation presented to former Environmental Commission Member Gary Toothman.  Mr Toothman has been a resident of Evesham since 1983 and was a member of the Environmental Commission for almost 3 decades.  He served as Recycling Liaison to the Evesham Fire Department, was a member of the Emergency Response Team, has been the senior member of the Town Watch for the last 15 years and was chairperson of the Environmental Commission for 25 years.  He was key in establishing in the Black Run Preserve and the Evesham Green Team, and was instrumental in the township receiving Bronze Certification for Sustainable Jersey.  He was presented with a proclamation by Mayor Veasy thanking him for his tireless dedication to the town.

(L to R) Councilman D'Andrea, Councilman DiEnna, Gary Toothman, Mayor Veasy, Deputy Mayor Cooper, Councilwoman Hansen (Photo Courtesy of Evesham Township)


All ordinances and resolutions were then passed by a 5-0 vote, except where noted.  Not everything that was passed is listed here, but some highlights are shown below.  The agenda with all the ordinances can be found here.  


Ordinance 1-2-2019 – Public Hearing – Applying Title 39 to streets in Devonforde Estates off Sharp Run.  This will allow local law enforcement to enforce traffic provisions.

Resolution 65-2019 – This resolution is to appoint new adult advisers to the Youth Advisory Committee (YAC).  Councilman D’Andrea mentioned that there were talks back in December about possibly moving the Youth Advisory Committee under the umbrella of the Evesham Celebration Foundation and he was surprised to find it on the agenda tonight.  He asked that the resolution be tabled until they could have a deeper discussion on where YAC should be housed.  Councilwoman Heather Cooper read the resolution establishing YAC and felt that it should remain under the auspices of the township and that she was excited to be a part of it.  Councilman DiEnna stated he had not done his due diligence on the matter.  The resolution passed by a vote of 3-2, with Councilmen D’Andrea and DiEnna voting no.  The resolution appointed Heather Cooper as Council Liaison Member and Wendy Gibson  as Youth Advisory Coordinator to the Evesham Youth Advisory committee, each for a two year term.  

Resolution 56-2019 awards the contract to research and apply for permits for a new sidewalk from Ross Way to Elmwood Road.  This would allow residents of Inglish Gardens to travel safely from their homes to the Village at the Greenes shopping center.  I spoke with Councilman D’Andrea after the meeting to get clarification on this.  There are a few different ways the sidewalk can be established and this resolution is only awarding the doing the research research and submitting applications for building and environmental permits for the sidewalk, along with coordinating the property owner for the permission to do so.

Finally Police Chief Crew spoke regarding the recent break ins to vehicles in the Woodstream and Ravencliff developments.  They believe there were 4 individuals involved.  There were 27 vehicle burglaries in all, 8 in Woodstream and 19 in Ravenscliff.  There was no forced entry on any vehicle – all were left unlocked.  In one vehicle, house keys were found and a burglar attempted to enter a home, causing an alarm to go off, which thwarted the attempted burglary and alerted police.  Police K9 and helicopter units were dispatched the criminals escaped.  The police held community safety events following the incident.  A warrant has since been issued for one of the individuals involved.

The next Town Council meeting is on Tuesday February 19th at 7pm.


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