In coming out of the worst of the pandemic last year, Tabernacle Township was somewhat able to celebrate being together again in 2021. Residents gave back to the community with their generosity and acts of kindness, and many projects and causes moved forward.
Here’s what was newsworthy in 2021:
Talk of the town
Members of the township board of education and committee were reelected to their positions in January, and Kimberly Brown was sworn in again as mayor. Judy Sailer, Megan Jones and Kevin McCloy were reelected to the school board.
Brown was joined by Sam Moore III, who currently serves as deputy mayor. At a meeting in January, they were sworn in over Zoom. Brown was assisted by her father, Southampton Mayor James Young. The committee also appointed 17 professionals for township attorney, engineer, animal control and other roles.
Committeewoman Nancy McGinnis congratulated Brown and Moore.
“Thank you to the professionals and to the staff of Tabernacle,” she said “I look forward to rolling up my sleeves. This year we got a lot done, considering that COVID took a lot of our time,”
“Let’s hope we can get life back to normal this year,” Moore added. “Hopefully, it’s nothing like 2020,”
The community had its challenges in 2021, but was able to once again come together, with COVID safety in mind. The township committee moved forward with various plans and area organizations were able to get back to helping.
Tabernacle celebrated its 120th anniversary in the spring with little fanfare. In future years, McGinnis said, she would like all residents to remember March 22 as Tabernacle Day.
In the town’s early days, Tabernacle was in Shamong Township, but Tabernacle residents eventually grew tired of Indian Mills’ overwhelming representation in local government. More than a century ago, Tabernacle applied to become its own township.
Tabernacle’s emergency services organizations, the Tabernacle Rescue Squad and fire company, responded to nearly 400 calls in the first quarter of 2021, according to Fire Chief George Jackson III.
The Tabernacle Rescue Squad ran 320 calls in its first quarter and volunteers logged more than 4,500 hours, according to its new chief, Keith Zane. The fire company took 61 calls, about half of which were for help in neighboring towns.
The township committee decided in the spring not to go forward with a solar farm at the former landfill on Old Indian Mills Road. Initial approval went quickly, but was rescinded because there was not a written resolution. Committee members went back and forth on the idea, with some, such as Joseph Barton, opposed to the project. McGinnis was the sole yes vote.
The committee named Sept. 22 Stuart Rubin Day, to recognize one individual’s desire to help others. A proclamation from the mayor cited Rubin for community service that began in 1971, when he became a volunteer with the Medford Farm Firefighter Company. He is now the longest tenured volunteer in the Tabernacle fire department, having responded to 7,500 calls.
In December, the committee again focused on solar power. An adopted ordinance will amend Chapter XVII of the township’s zoning code to change the district classification of 10 tax lots and permit solar-energy facilities in the Preservation Area District. The move was in accordance with the objectives of the Pinelands Comprehensive Management Plan and a resolution was adopted to appoint Casey English, now township administrator, to the role of fund commissioner.
Learning to live with COVID
This year the Tabernacle Township Public Schools faced some challenges this year adjusting to full in person instruction after a long period of remote learning.
As the new year began, Seneca High School announced it would start an Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Certification Program for the incoming Class of 2025. The program is designed to give students the opportunity to blend work experience with a robust curriculum that will lead to an entry level ASE certification and give students a streamlined path to a professional certification after high school.
The Education Foundation in Tabernacle was awarded a $1,000 grant in February from Investors Foundation to use for professional development in SEL (Social- Emotional Learning).
All schools in the Lenape Regional High School District (Seneca, Shawnee, Lenape and Cherokee) reopened for five-day, in person instruction on March 1. Superintendent Carol Birnbohm announced the move in February.
The rest of Tabernacle’s students returned to school five days a week on March 15, following Superintendent Shaun Banin’s announcement of the “Path Forward Plan” at a special board of education meeting on Feb 26. The five day plan allowed kindergarten through fourth grade classes to return for in person half days on March 15, while all other students returned the following week.
Banin announced plans in April to bring all students back to school for five full days in the fall, with changes. Remote learning would no longer be optional, unless students had a medical need. Sports, clubs and activities were able to resume.
Also in April, the district passed a 2021-’22 budget that includes a tax hike of one half-cent per dollar of property value. For the average assessed home in Tabernacle, taxes would increase by about $14 a year.
The township school district board of education welcomed new board member Dean Dodaro in August and made the switch to OnCourse to RealTime. With Realtime, parents can access their children’s schedules and other important information.
In November, voters in the Nov. 2 general election gave the Lenape district approval to move forward with a bond-borrowing plan to update and enhance all four district high schools: Lenape, Shawnee, Cherokee and Seneca. The projects included in the district’s bond proposal are estimated to cost $66,628,944.
The addition of state aid, combined with the payoff of existing debt from a previous referendum, will enable the district to move forward with zero changes in the tax rates across all eight of its school communities, including Evesham, Medford, Medford Lakes, Mt. Laurel, Southampton, Shamong and Woodland.
Since the vote was passed, the Lenape district has been able to access $24,431,777 in a special type of state aid that will reduce the local share to $42,197,167. The aid is only available to districts that fund capital projects through a voter-approved bond referendum.
The planned projects are on the district’s “Long-Range Facilities Plan,” with priorities identified based on feedback from community members who participated in the Lenape district’s 2018 strategic planning process. They include:
– General renovations to improve building exteriors and instructional spaces that are in daily use by all students.
– Replacement of aging heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, with the addition of air conditioning at all four high schools.
– Enhancement of classroom spaces to create more in-depth Career Pathway programs. Any Lenape district student will be able to attend the automotive program at Seneca, the carpentry program at Cherokee or the welding/metalwork fabrication program at Lenape.
– The addition of turf fields at Lenape and Seneca to truly level the playing field for district athletes.
Birnbohm said HVAC work and other interior renovations, including electrical and plumbing upgrades, will be timed to avoid disrupting students. Those projects are expected to start in the summer of 2022 and could extend to the 2024-’25 school year. The superintendent also thanked voters for passing the referendum and those who advocated for the school’s.
In December, the Tabernacle Township board of education thanked member Daniel Dilks for his time on the board.
People needing people
Tabernacle residents did their best to help others despite COVID issues and were awarded for those accomplishments.
Tabernacle Elementary School third grade teacher Micheal Dunlea was nominated for the 2020-’21 national LifeChanger of the Year award. He was nominated by his friend, Memphis teacher Melissa Collins. For the past three years, the two have used an online platform called Empatico to allow their students to make virtual connections with kids around the country. Dunlea’s all-white class in New Jersey was able to connect with Collins’ all-black classroom in Memphis.
Tabernacle teen Kendall Hovius was awarded a full-ride college scholarship and will attend Barry University to study marine biology. She was recognized as a Stamps Scholar, a distinguished title that gives her opportunities to study abroad, build leadership skills and make connections.
The Lenape district’s Child Study Team Student Job Developer, Kim Mileszko, was nominated for USA Today’s Best of HumanKind Awards in October. The award honors everyday people who have shown the highest level of kindness and perseverance in 2021. Mileszko was nominated in the Educator of the Year Category, an award she took in December.
In applying skills and creative thinking, 7-year-old Tabernacle resident and second grader Kate Ritter opened her first flower stand in 2020. This year, she continued to use her entrepreneurial skills and business training in selling her plants, while learning how to count money, market her products and tell the difference between wholesale and resale.
In a positive turn of events for sports lovers, 20 year Tabernacle resident and businessman Richard Feltoon got to throw a pitch on Nov 1 at game five of the World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros.
The lighter side
Many residents proved how creative they were with giving back and thinking artistically. In April 2021, Tabernacle resident Katie Schulze-Bahn published her first novel, “Sugar Sand Road” a coming-of-age story inspired by her Pinelands adventures and summers in Long Beach Island. The main character of Katie feels like an outcast, but grows through exploration in the Pine Barrens.
“Tabernacle is definitely where my heart and soul is,” she said “Katie’s always the black sheep, so I could relate to that, too.”
Married couple Brittany and Mike Murro came together at ESF Summer Camps in Moorestown 15 years ago and now serve as co-directors there. Brittany is a teacher at Tabernacle Elementary School and Mike teaches art at Bunker Hill Middle School in Washington Township.
As COVID restrictions eased, the Tabernacle community came together in small ways to celebrate being able to socialize together again.
At the beginning of the year, Alpaca yoga came to town for a safe, socially distanced event. Rose and Frank Nash, who care for their alpacas on a farm in Tabernacle, collaborated with Gina Durante, a Collingswood resident and owner of Yoga Events, to hold yoga events at the farm.
To ring in the holiday season, the Tabernacle Woman’s Association hosted its 30-plus-year tradition of the Helping Hands Tree, set up inside the WSFS bank on Route 206 in time for Thanksgiving. Each tree tag was attached to an ornament for residents to keep as a thank you for providing gifts to needy families. The township hosted its annual tree-lighting ceremony at town hall on Dec 3, the return of a tradition sidelined last year by COVID.
Fields of dreams
Tabernacle’s athletic teams faced adjustments at the beginning of the year, with COVID precautions still preventing some sports. But by mid-year, play was back. Seneca High School’s girls field hockey team captured yet another South Jersey Group II sectional title with a win over Haddon Heights in November. Seneca won back-to-back titles from 2017 to 2019 before also winning the regional championship last year, a match sidelined by COVID.
In another local sports accomplishment, Shane Lovett and Elkin Bonilla-Hernandez took home South Jersey Soccer Coaches Association honors for their contributions to the Golden Eagles football team at Seneca. Lovett took home the scholarship award, while Bonilla-Hernandez was named Most Courageous Athlete.
