The borough is entering year two of a three year deal for its shared service agreement with the Borough of Audubon. Haddonfield will continue to share a court with the neighboring municipality for at least one more year. The commissioners approved the measure to keep the shared court program in service for 2012 and will pay Audubon a fee of $38,500.
The second year fee increased by $1,500 from the first year, as per the three-year agreement. Haddonfield has the option to leave the agreement after each year, but none of the commissioners had any negative reviews of the first year of the shared service agreement.
Commissioner Ed Borden said it was a win-win for both towns. Haddonfield police officers haven’t had any difficulties going to the court as well, Borden said, and Police Chief John Banning agreed.
“We’ve saved substantial money in salary and service costs through this agreement,” Borden said.
Commissioner Jeff Kaskso said the Audubon judge and prosecutor have been fantastic so far. Both are well-respected figures, he said, and the agreement seems to be working out for both towns.
“They’ve really done a great job for us,” Kasko said.
The agreement was originally approved in September of 2010.
Original reports estimated that Haddonfield would save close to $60,000 a year in costs through the agreement. Borden originally estimated that Haddonfield’s court costs would total more than $125,000 for 2011.
It was estimated that the borough would also save $20,000 in police overtime costs through the agreement.
Audubon has a much larger courtroom facility than Haddonfield with better security and more parking.
The agreement to merge courts and let Audubon take the lead on the program resulted in a longtime Haddonfield court clerk being let go from her position.
In other borough news:
The commissioners approved a resolution that will allow two private citizens groups to display religious symbols at the Haddonfield holiday tree in front of the public library.
Mayor Tish Colombi explained that the borough cannot legally put up religious symbols at the tree, but that private citizen groups had the rite to do so and the borough annually approved a resolution to allow this.
The Citizens for a Christian Christmas were given awarded a permit to sponsor a Christmas in Haddonfield Creche event while Chabad Lubavitch in Cherry Hill was awarded a permit to sponsor a Chanukah Menorah Lighting event as well.
