By ROBERT LINNEHAN | The Haddonfield Sun
It won’t usher casinos into Haddonfield, but residents will have the opportunity to approve certain games of chance at the November general elections.
The borough commissioners approved an ordinance that would see a special referendum question placed on the November general election ballot. If approved, certified organizations within Haddonfield — such as veteran, charitable or educational organizations — would be able to hold, operate and conduct games of chance, such as raffles or 50–50s.
Commissioner Ed Borden said Haddonfield has had an ordinance on its books that has outlawed games of chance for at least the past 30 to 40 years. Many organizations have approached the borough over the past several years, he said, asking to hold these events to build up their treasuries to support some of the programming and events the borough has come to enjoy.
Borden said organizations have asked the borough for many years if they could hold these events. It made sense to revisit the ordinance and see if the public would allow games of chance. The only organizations in the borough that would be able to hold these games are ones that would devote the net proceeds to educational, charitable, patriotic, religious, or public-spirited uses.
Borough Solicitor Mario Iavicoli said a referendum question on the ballot would be needed to change the ordinance.
The ordinance will be heard on second reading in two weeks.
In other borough news:
The commissioners awarded a contract to Arborpro Inc. for an extensive tree inventory in the borough. The contract was awarded for $35,000.
Mayor Tish Colombi said a representative of the Haddonfield Shade Tree Commission was able to procure a grant to cover the cost of the inventory. An inventory of the borough’s trees needs to be completed to see how much damage has been done by bacterial leaf scorch, a tree disease that affects red and pin oak trees.
Shade Tree Commission Chair William Polise said in a previous interview that the borough could possibly lose up to 2,000 of its red and pin oak trees in the next 15 years to BLS. BLS, according to the United States National Arboretum, is a degenerative infectious chronic disease that physically clogs the tree’s water conducting tissue.
The disease can’t be cured and by the time the trees are showing signs of BLS it’s too late, Polise said. The most obvious symptom for BLS is a browning of the tree’s leaves, bordered by a pale halo band, separating the healthy from the dead tissue in the leaf, according to the USNA.
Red and pin oaks are a typically hardy breed of tree, Polise said, which usually are able to grow in any conditions and live for many years. On several Haddonfield streets there is just one type of tree, he said, and in the Radnor area of town the vast majority of the trees are red or pin oaks.
The oaks account for about 20 percent of the town’s shade trees, he said, but up in the Radnor area they account for more than 33 percent.
Police Chief John Banning said he was proud of several officers in the department who were promoted last week and sworn into their new positions by Borden.
Sergeant Gary Pearce was promoted to a lieutenant, Officer Brian Trippel was promoted to Sergeant, and Officers George Custer and Jose Ortiz were both promoted to corporal.
“I’m thrilled for the men here. I’m thrilled as chief to be involved with the promotion of such fine police officers,” Banning said.
