Even though 2014 just came to a close, Evesham Mayor Randy Brown and township officials are already hard at work planning for what 2015 will bring to the township.
According to Brown, one of the first projects the township finally hopes to accomplish in the early part of 2015 is taking over responsibility for parts of Main Street and Maple Avenue from Burlington County.
About six months ago, council had the township enter discussions with Burlington County with the goal of having the county give Evesham control of Maple Avenue between Routes 70 and 73 and Main Street between Route 73 and Elmwood Road.
In the past, Brown has said taking over responsibility for the roads would help with economic development, giving sole approval of new projects along the roads to the Evesham Township Planning Board alone, as well as help the township with planning seasonal, community-wide events along Main Street.
“Our goal for the new year would be to have full takeover of Main and Maple, in the sections of which we outlined, in January,” Brown said.
Whether the township is given full control of Main and Maple in January, Evesham will already still be responsible for plowing snow on those, and all, county roads in the township in 2015 as a result of a continuing deal made with the county last year.
“No matter what, we’re going to plow those,” Brown said. “We have that deal anyway. We’re going to plow all of Main and Maple, and the county will reimburse us for the areas of which we won’t have ownership.”
Moving into a little later in 2015, Brown said the ongoing development of a redevelopment plan for the vacant Tri-Towne Plaza along Route 70 is going great.
In October, the township and Tri-Towne owner Richard Birdoff, of New York-based RD Management, publically announced an agreement to redevelop the 180,000 square feet of empty buildings into a mixed-use commercial and residential site, bringing new jobs, stores and market rate apartments to the site.
“We’re now up to plan 32, 32nd revision we’re at right now…we’ve got to get a redevelopment plan done first, and then have Tri-Towne at a planning board (meeting) in the first quarter of 2015,” Brown said. “It’s going great. Really, the cooperation is outstanding.”
Brown also said another plan for the site is the creation of a walking path through the 150-foot buffer between the Tri-Towne Plaza and Route 70, which the township has already received approval for from the state Department of Transportation.
“We did get approval for the front from the DOT. We did get approval on the easement,” Brown said. “You’re going to be able to walk from the other side of Plymouth Road where TD Bank is. You’re going to be able to walk via crosswalks and the walking paths from there all the way down to Main Street and 7-Eleven and be safe the whole way. It’s going to be great.”
Moving to another township project, Brown spoke about Evesham’s work on the municipal owned and managed Indian Spring Golf Course, with council recently approving what’s known as the Municipal Partners Program for the course, which allows other townships to get their residents discounts on rounds of golf played at Indian Spring in exchange for promoting the course on their township websites and social media pages.
With the township having been in charge of managing the course for a full year, Brown called the improvements there so far amazing, and said 2015 would bring more of the same.
“Really, what we want to do is increase outings. We absolutely have to increase outings,” Brown said. “We’ve increased fees some, but we’re also increasing our community partnerships with the Municipal Partnership Program. There are our short-term goals.”
Moving from golf to baseball and softball, Brown said for the spring and summer of 2015, the six-month-old Diamond at Arrowhead Park sports complex already has some tournaments scheduled, fulfilling Brown and council’s vision for the fields.
“We’ve already got some bites on tournaments for July and August,” Brown said. “We already have that. We’re trying to come up with a couple partnerships with some food service groups that can help us bring some money in also. It’s working out even better than we thought it was going to.”
Reflecting on township’s plans for 2015 as a whole, Brown said he was still very humbled by the residents re-electing him in November, and he would do what he said then and simply work to make Evesham a better place to live.
“I always said I do everything I can to make Evesham a better and safer place to live, and 2015 will only be a continuation upon that.”
