The Voorhees Township Committee appointed four new police sergeants and three new truck drivers at the Aug. 11 township meeting.
“These are seven welcomed additions to our community,” Township Administrator Larry Spellman said. “They will all certainly add something of benefit to Voorhees.”
The four new police sergeants include Officer William Walsh, Investigator Daniel Scheets, Det. Anthony Del Palazzo and Det. Eric Camm.
“These men represent everything that encompasses being a police officer,” Spellman said. “They have shown their dedication and are now being rewarded for what is rightly theirs.”
The promotions to these officers come after a year of waiting, according to Spellman.
“We have been waiting to replace the sergeants that retired for more than a year now,” Spellman said. “We couldn’t promote any of these officers until the promotion list came down from the state, and we are very excited to finally be able to call these officer sergeants.”
While the promotion list may not have come down, the four officers have been handling many of the duties associated with the sergeant position during the past year.
“There won’t be too much of a learning curve because the four of them have basically been acting as sergeants for the whole year,” Spellman said. “The only difference is now they have the badge, and we can address them as sergeant, which is really a great thing.”
All four officers were in attendance at the meeting to accept their promotions.
“It was a heartfelt moment watching the officers accept their promotions, and we hope they will continue to do a wonderful job in keeping our community safe,” Spellman said.
The committee also appointed Lance Connor, Matthew Capone and Edward McCay as truck drivers for the Public Works Department. All have a CDLA certification, which allows them to operate a tow truck.
McCay, Capone and Connor will replace three drivers that have retired this year and are a welcome addition to the community, according to Spellman.
“The three of them bring a wealth of experience to the job,” Spellman said. “We are counting on them to do a great job.”
An experience all three share is handling a snowplow, which Spellman sees as an invaluable asset to the community.
“After the winter we had last year, we see just how important it is to have drivers that have experience handling a snow plow,” Spellman said. “All drivers have their CDL license, but there is no certification for handling a snow plow. That is a skill you have to learn on the job and luckily, we have three new guys that can all handle a plow.”
The next township meeting will take place on Sept. 8 at 7:30.
