By Bill Bates
NEWS Correspondent
Mount Ephraim Commissioners passed an ordinance on first reading at the May meeting to amend the previous political sign ordinance that was currently on the books. There is a law that states political signs are part of free speech and no such ordinance can dictate that.
A second reading of borough ordinance 04-07 was read and carried, amending the previous ordinance \”Applying for mercantile licenses\”. This new ordinance is to include late fees to businesses so they are more alert to paying their mercantile license on time.
Prior to this ordinance, there was no late fee for any business owner who renews their license and most of them were not paying their renewal fee on time.
A resolution was approved canceling the balance of the first and second quarter taxes due to the consolidation of properties.
There are several homeowners and business owners who have houses or buildings on more than one lot. These lots were combined creating one lot instead of having numerous lots for one property.
Another resolution was read determining and certifying amounts to be raised for school taxes for the 2007-2008 school year. Further details will become available in the next issue regarding this subject.
A resolution was read introducing the Camden County Community Development Home Improvement Program (HIP) to Mount Ephraim residents again this year.
This program is principally to benefit seniors and low-and moderate-income persons as well as to prevent or eliminate slums or blight. Improvements can include heating, plumbing, electrical, roofs and carpentry. Improvements are based on eliminating health and safety hazards for low to moderate income homeowners.
There are several income eligibility guidelines.
Homeowners must live in the property, taxes must be current and you must have homeowners insurance.
Funding is made available as a deferred payment loan.
Contact the Community Development Office, Cindy Silvers at 757-6663 or [email protected].
Commissioner Tony Chambers stated that American Water Company (AWC) should change over soon. Sometime in the near future the AWC will be changing meters over to a \”Ride-By Water Meter Reading System.\”
Chambers then reported that the Walgreen\’s project is rolling along smoothly as they are currently in the building stage. The Kings Highway Street Scape Project is as well rolling along smoothly as most of the Victorian lanterns have been installed and are working properly. Plans are in the design stage for the Third Avenue Re-pavement Project which is being completed from a recent DOT Grant for $152,000.
The Green Avenue Re-pavement Project should commence sometime in May or early April. Residents residing on Green Avenue will receive a letter prior to construction.
Outgoing Commissioner Tony Chambers publicly wanted to thank the residents for allowing him to serve our great community for the past four years. He stated that it was an honor and a privilege working with the boroughs employees, the residents, and the business owners.
He wanted to thank the many volunteers who make this community what it is including the fire department, the emergency medical services, the emergency management, as well as the softball and little league coaches and parents.
He also wanted to thank the employees from the Department of Public Works including Supervisor Ken Jones who have made many changes and improvements over the last several years to make the town function and operate at a higher level.
A round of applause was given in return to Commissioner Chambers acknowledging him for all of his hard work and dedication.
Mayor Michael Reader announced during the report of departments that the fire department responded to 58 calls for the month of April, and conducted 3 training exercises for a total of 761 hours and 38 minutes. The police department received 547 calls with 320 of those being assigned a case number. Calls year-to-date is 1,646 and total cases that were assigned are 962. The Budget Inn on the Black Horse Pike consumed 72 hours and 16 minutes of the officer\’s time during the month of April.
Commissioner Tony Chambers called outgoing Planning/Zoning Board Chairman Wayne Koehl up to the front of the meeting room. Commissioner Chambers then presented a certificate acknowledging Wayne and all of his hard work and dedication that he has provided to the Planning/Zoning Boards in the past four years.
He credited much of the success during the past four years on many of the projects that have came before the board and its members to Wayne\’s leadership as board chairman. Several of these projects included the Kings Highway Street Scape Project, the current Walgreen\’s Project, The Original Canal\’s and Domino Pizza currently being built on the Black Horse Pike, the Dunkin Donuts Project which is currently in the works, and the former Haddonfield Lumber new homes construction which is scheduled to begin in the very near future.
During the public portion of the meeting, several residents came forward with issues that they wanted to bring to the attention of the elected officials. Baird Avenue resident Karien Campanell expressed her concerns regarding the length of the traffic light that was recently installed at Market Street and Kings Highway (and also the corner of Baird Avenue).
Mrs. Campanell wanted to know if something could be done about the length of the light during the night hours as one can sit an idle for almost a minute and a half while waiting to turn with no traffic on the roads. She also asked if the \”No Right Turn\” sign needed to be there as well. Mayor Reader acknowledged these concerns and said that he and Police Chief Dobleman will further investigate to see what could be done to rectify the situation.
Another resident, Karen Herman inquired about the joint court system that the borough currently shares with Oaklyn. Karen had asked if the town is losing any money while doing this joint venture with our neighboring community. Mrs. Herman was assured that the borough was not losing any money and in fact they were saving money as a result of this \”shared service.\”
Instead of Mount Ephraim having to incur the full expenses of a Judge, court staff, and operating expenses, we are splitting the costs with Oaklyn, a 50/50 split for all expenses. This allows both communities to save money on these very expensive costs.
Kings Highway Business Owner, Dr. Rick Brown who owns Back to Life Chiropractics wanted to thank outgoing Commissioner Tony Chambers for all of his hard work that he has done during his past four years.
He stated that since he has moved his business into Mount Ephraim, he has had nothing but great success and thanked everyone from the residents to the borough employees and commissioners. He further added that the Kings Highway Street Scape Project even though in its beginning stages, looks fabulous and really is a big improvement to the town and Kings Highway.
He also said many of his customers who are not from town have comment-ted on the improvements including the Walgreen\’s corner as well as the street lighting and have had nothing but nice things to say.
He wished all of the elected nothing but the best in their future endeavors.
Resident Diane Corbet of the unit block of Davis Avenue inquired about the possibility of allowing parking on the opposite side of her street where there currently is no parking allowed. She only suggested this parking issue to occur during the night hours only as she knows her street gets a lot of traffic during the day from the Mary Bray School as well as the Cold Star Business.
She stated that as more families move in and have multiply cars, it makes it very hard for others who have one car to find a parking spot and they end up parking down the street or around the corner on Gloucester Avenue. She also wanted to thank the commissioners and the mayor for all of their hard work and dedication during the past four years that they have been in office.
Police Chief Dobleman reported that a traffic study had recently been completed on Fourth Avenue (across from the new WaWa on the Black Horse Pike) which has a speed limit of 25 MPH. Chief Dobleman stated that almost 95 percent of the traffic that traveled down or up Fourth Avenue traveled at 35 MPH or below this speed.
He further added that on any given weekday, almost 1,400 vehicles traveled on this street in a 24 hour period. Dobleman will be working along with the residents and the Commissioners to what solutions can be implemented.
He further added that two more traffic studies will be completed in the weeks to come, one on Northmont Avenue, which allows traffic to travel from Market Street all the way down to Fourth Avenue (they meet at the RR track crossing) and down to the Black Horse Pike in front of the WaWa. The second will be completed on Bell Road. One study was conducted last summer and they discovered that over 4,000 vehicles had traveled on Bell Road between Friday morning and Monday morning, a total of three days.
Northmont Avenue resident Anthony Stagliano strongly encouraged the traffic study on his street as he has encountered many vehicles traveling at high rates of speed during all hours of the day.
The next monthly meeting of the Mount Ephraim Board of Commissioners will be at 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 7, at the Borough Hall located at 121 South Black Horse Pike.
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