Mayor Randy Brown recently had the township explore the idea of assuming control of Main Street and Maple Avenue from Burlington County, arguing the town would have an easier time planning town events and attracting developers if it had sole control over the two roads.
The roads are under the township and county’s joint-authority, but Brown wants Evesham to have full control of Maple Avenue between Routes 70 and 73 and Main Street between Route 73 and Elmwood Road.
Brown asked township manager William Cromie and Councilman Steve Zeuli to reach out to county officials concerning the idea, and at the most recent township council meeting, they reported back with the county’s response.
The two met with the head of the Burlington County highway department, who said the county would be willing to give Evesham sole control over the two roads.
However, the highway department head said the county would not be willing to give any money the county currently spends on the roads or accept an equal amount of Evesham’s roads in exchange, both possibilities Brown and council had previously discussed.
“We got no indication that they were interested in taking any other road that we would offer them, and secondly, there was no offer of dollars in order to offset anything that we would have to put out,” Cromie said.
Zeuli expressed his concern about assuming control of the roads and taking on the extra costs associated with paving and maintaining.
“I look at it and I say, well we’re getting the service of something now for free, and then we’d have to pay for it, and what would we be looking to pay for it from what we would get in return,” Zeuli.
“We’ve seen the cost outlines here, and they’re significant.”
The county provided paving cost information and data stating that Main and Maple had not been repaved since sometime around 2004 or 2005, and should be repaved around every seven years. Brown disagreed with that assessment.
“They both seem to still be in pretty good shape,” Brown said. “They only thing I don’t agree with is that you’re going to repave them every seven years, I don’t agree with that. I think you’re going to be repaving them every 10 to 15 at the most.”
Zeuli also argued that even if the time between repaving can be longer than the county estimates, costs have gone up since the last time they were paved and the numbers the county provided.
“Just out of normal inflation, you can add 2–3 percent a year,” Zeuli said. “Expect that when you’re dealing with a commodity like asphalt, it’s very volatile, and it’s always going to be more expensive. So the price of a simple overlay, about 40 percent is the cost of the asphalt in that job.”
Brown still believed the township could manage the costs of assuming the roads, 2.6 miles in total, because of the money Evesham would gain from having more developers willing to invest in the town if they didn’t have to deal with two planning boards.
“We lose how many hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax dollars and how much money in ratables because the county says they didn’t like the project,” Brown said.
Councilman Robert DiEnna said he wanted more time to research the pros and cons of taking on the responsibility of the roads.
“There have been occasions when we have sat here and looked at some of the decisions that were made prior to this mayor and council, and going back quite a ways and you say ‘Wow, what were they thinking when they did that?’” DiEnna said. “I don’t want to be identified with a decision down the road unless I’m convinced that it’s the right way to go.”
Other members of the council agreed, and Brown ultimately said the issue should be discussed further in a future work session.
