Residents of the Briarwood subdivision used the public comment portion of the June 16 Evesham Township Council meeting to ask for possible solutions to some growing problems they have — overgrowing that is.
Resident Kevin Rogers spoke on behalf of Briarwood residents when he asked council if there was anything it could do regarding the nature of the subdivision’s two “Briarwood signs” and several retention and detention basins, which have become overgrown and are drawing residents’ ire.
Regarding the signs, Rogers said one doesn’t have letters anymore as a result of the property owners removing them to stop kids from vandalizing them, and both are overgrown.
However, Rogers explained that no homeowners association exists in Briarwood, and no easements having been set up where the signs are on common ground.
“As far as the property owner is concerned, they could take the sign down, and the people of Briarwood have no say in the matter, and so there should have been an easement or HOA, an easement for someone to come in and do work on it, or an HOA to take care of it,” Rogers said.
Evesham Township manager Tom Czerniecki said the township would research planning board approval documents to see where the signs appear on the original plans, but said the signs were just one example of at a least a dozen around town in a state of disrepair.
Czerniecki said he actually hoped to soon propose to council an economic development or town beautification ordinance that would create a matching grant program where the township could help those residents who raise funds to repair and maintain such signs.
“This way it spares us the effort of having to go get the lowest bid and all that sort of stuff,” Czerniecki said.
The other Briarwood related issue Rogers raised were retention and detention basins that have become overgrown, and which Rogers said he wasn’t sure were performing as they should.
Department of Public Works Superintendent Tom Kohl said his department was aware of the issue and it was on their schedule.
Mayor Randy Brown asked that Kohl meet with Rogers and other residents about the issue, and also asked the township engineer to see if there were perhaps another solution the township was missing.
In other news:
• Resident Joe Barbagiovanni again asked members of council to review any decisions they might have made regarding a potential redevelopment project on South Maple Avenue.
Developer Mitchell Davis, on behalf of current owner South Maple LLC, has plans to turn the property, located across from the Evesham Township School District Administrative Office, into a group of apartments.
As he has done at previous meetings, Barbagiovanni cited concerns of the building being too large for the area and the area being unfit to handle an increased amount of traffic that could result from the plans.
Barbagiovanni said both town and county planning boards have told him there wasn’t anything they could do.
• A resolution for Cherokee High School senior and member of Boy Scout Troop 49 Timothy Gordon’s Eagle Scout ranking was passed.
For his project, Gordon helped build stairs to storage trailers used by the Knights of Columbus to house components of the St. Joan of Arc’s annual carnival.
