After two years, the Sustainable Moorestown Green Team finally might be a permanent advisory committee in Moorestown, giving sustainability a permanent residence in town.
At the Moorestown Township Council meeting on Monday, July 27, an ordinance on first reading to establish Sustainable Moorestown Green Team as a permanent advisory committee was introduced. All members of council, excluding Councilwoman Stacey Jordan, as she was absent, approved the first reading with enthusiasm. Council also approved two ordinances on second reading unanimously.
Sustainable Moorestown Green Team, a temporary committee of nine members, was created to look at the town’s economic, social and environmental issues and help it be more sustainable with projects such as green roofs, energy efficient lighting and more.
Previously, the Sustainable Moorestown Green Team would have to have a resolution approved each year to allow the committee to continue. Rather than having to go through that process time and time again, council decided to make Sustainable Moorestown Green Team permanent.
“Why do this every year when we know this is something we want to have permanently in our town? So we’re going to establish it by ordinance instead,” Mayor Victoria Napolitano said.
Sustainable Moorestown chair Wolf Skacel and vice chair David Hess were in attendance at the meeting, coming up to praise the ordinance and thank the council for making it an permanent committee.
“We support the ordinance and commend the council for having the foresight and leadership to do an ordinance rather than a resolution, solidifying a permanent committee,” Skacel said.
Since its establishment, the Sustainable Moorestown Green Team has helped Moorestown received a bronze certification for sustainability in 2013 and a silver certification in 2014.
The public hearing for the second reading of the ordinance will be at the next council meeting on Monday, Aug. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Council also approved two ordinances on second reading about the Kings Highway Water Treatment Plant and the milling and paving of Pleasant Valley Avenue.
The first ordinance for the Kings Highway Water Treatment Plant called for the appropriation of $710,000 and the borrowing of $675,600 to be used for preliminary engineer and design expenses. According to township manager Scott Carew, in 2020, the township’s contract with New Jersey American Water would be up and it would like to have more efficient operating water treatment plants so it can reduce the need for a contract with NJAW.
The Kings Highway Water Treatment Plant is not the principal water treatment plant, however it is used as a secondary water source to pump during the summer months when demand is high. The township plans to update all of its plants so it will eventually save money in the long run. NJAW charges $3 to every $1 the township charges for water, Carew said.
Also at the meeting, Carew said both wells at the North Church Street plant, one still having the unregulated compound Trichloropropane (TCP 1,2,3) and the other previously having TCP 1,2,3 now a non-detect, were tested for the first time on Friday, July 24. The township is still awaiting the results.
The second approved ordinance called for the appropriation of $725,000 and the borrowing of $502,550 for the milling and paving of Pleasant Valley Avenue. According to Carew, the difference between the bond and the actual cost is grant money the township received for the project.
There is no start date established yet, but the township would like it to be constructed in the fall. The only reason it wouldn’t be this year is if the contract isn’t together before it gets cold, but Carew said they have every intention of getting it done for the fall.
