Mayor Michael Mignogna discusses the highlights of the past year.
As we welcome 2018, we should take one last moment to reflect on 2017:
- The Virtua Medical Campus celebrates its sixth anniversary and the “Medical Mile” continues to be an “economic magnet” for the Route 73 corridor. U.S. Renal opened to create even more jobs and significant tax revenue for our community.
- The Voorhees Town Center continues to be a hub of activity, with events such as the Beer Garden, Thriller Night, our Halloween Festival and the Holiday Parade. This year for the first time, Sustainable Voorhees sponsored “Arts on the Boulevard” to show off the talents of local artists. “Restaurant Row” continues to thrive with Iron Hill Brewery, Elena Wu, Rodizio Grill, Catelli Duo, Friendly’s and a new edition called Sally and Pete’s, which will be opening soon. We will continue to work with the owner of the Town Center, Camden County and the State to make sure this space is occupied and put to good use.
- Voorhees’ road program continued with the repaving of Alluvium Lakes Drive, Brookstone Drive, Cedar Hill Court, Hazelhurst Drive, Millburn Way and the phase I of Rural Avenue.
- Improvements were made to the Township infrastructure. The replacement of the Beagle Club Pump Station was completed. With a grant, the bike paths at Old Egg Harbor Road and Centennial Mill Drive were connected. With another grant, a bike path was installed on Kirkwood-Gibbsboro Road. With yet another grant, a sidewalk was installed along Old Egg Harbor Road. A turf field and additional lights were installed at the Maiaroto Soccer Complex. A picnic pavilion was installed at Lions Lake Park in addition to new lights installed at Softball Field #3. With a grant, new playground equipment was installed at the Lake Villa playground, Kirkwood Park playground and the Sandpiper Drive playground.
- Voorhees continued to work to protect our environment. In 2017, our residents recycled 3,000 tons of trash, saving $197,000 in disposal fees. We continued our use of Compressed Natural Gas trash trucks, which emit 30 percent less greenhouse gases and make 90 percent less noise than traditional diesel trucks. The Township continued a partnership with the residents along Kirkwood Lake to hasten the clean up of the lake by EPA and improve the quality of life in and around the lake. On Oct. 8, Sustainable Voorhees sponsored our first “Green Fair” to encourage and improve sustainability.
- The Township Committee worked hard to reduce spending and control costs. Voorhees engaged in sensible shared services programs with Eastern Regional High School, the Voorhees Township Schools, Gibbsboro, Laurel Springs, Brooklawn, Stratford and Camden County. We continued our programs of side-arm trash collection and single stream recycling collection, allowing our manpower to be used more efficiently. We again partnered with an energy company to buy utilities directly from the provider, saving approximately $125,000 per year. Our CNG trucks saved the Township approximately $35,000 a year in fuel costs. A fuel tank at the Department of Public Works dispenses both gas and diesel fuel, saving the Township approximately $25,000 per year in fuel costs.
- We took steps to maintain and improve public safety and keep our families safe by hiring four additional police officers. We again partnered with the schools to place a police officer in every school during the entire school day, helping ensure our children’s safety. All of our police officers were again equipped with body cameras for their protection and the protection of our residents. Two new police motorcycles have been added to improve the ability of our officers to cover the town. A new mobile command unit was commissioned and two new armored defense vehicles were obtained from the federal government at no cost. We continued our Safe Exchange Zone, DNA Home Asset Program, the NextDoor App, the E-Ticketing System, Project Medicine Drop, the Anonymous Crime Tip Line, Nixle, the Safe Cam Program and the Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over Program. We had our fourth Annual Junior Police Academy as well as our second Annual Adult Police Academy.
- Based on numerous requests from residents and our full time firefighters union, the Fire Department was merged into the Township, allowing the department to operate more efficiently, economically and safer. Two new fire trucks were put in operation and three new firefighters were hired. Voorhees now has career firefighters on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some 15 new sets of turnout gear were purchased for our firefighters. We hired 10 new EMTs and purchased two new ambulances.
- We continued our Voorhees Saves Lives Program. Through contributions from private donations, free Uber rides home are provided to Voorhees and Evesham residents from participating establishments in both townships from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. No tax dollars are used for the program. In 2017, over 1,000 free rides home were provided to Voorhees residents. Since the inception of the program, Voorhees has seen a 16 percent decrease in DUI arrests.
- The Township Committee continues to make local government more efficient, accessible and transparent. We redesigned our website to make it more user friendly. It includes additional Township news, the Mayor’s Column, board agendas and helpful information for our veterans and local businesses. Our Township Facebook page has 2,500 followers and we continued the use of the Township App, Twitter and Instagram.
- We continued with our Shop Voorhees Property Tax Reward Program, allowing a portion or your normal purchasing dollars spent on goods and services to be applied toward your property tax bill, thereby reducing your taxes at the end of the tax year. We now have 40 Voorhees businesses and almost 2,800 households participating.
- The 14th Annual Summer Series at Connolly Park was bigger and better than ever with tributes to Chicago, The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac. This year, a “Beer Garden” and food trucks were added to the festivities.
- This year we had our first Voorhees Got Talent during the summer and gave our residents an opportunity to show off their entertainment skills. A talented young man by the name of Primo Davis took home the $1,000 first prize.
- On Aug. 1, our third “National Night Out” was held at Connolly Park. The event was sponsored by the Voorhees Township Police Department and included members of our Fire Department, EMS and the VBA. The evening included great food and entertainment and
