Dear Community Friends,
While I was attending the Coffee with a Cop hosted by the Mantua Township Police Department at Target and Starbucks on Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 10, a brazen crook attempted to allegedly smuggle apparent stolen beauty supplies from the store. Unfortunately, for this ill informed lawbreaker, our illustrious police officers were awaiting her attempted escape with open arms and a set of handcuffs.
It is truly surreal that someone would be so brazen to attempt a heist with uniformed police officers saturating the inside and outside of Target during an advertised community policing event. Moral of the story, great job by our police department, and extreme foolishness by the accused would-be thief. I guess some are not cut-out for a career of misdeeds.
On a positive note, Deputy Mayor Pete Scirrotto and I were thoroughly impressed with this Coffee with a Cop community policing initiative, and the positive feedback received by the many residents who stopped by to meet and greet with our police department. We also had a special guest, Lieutenant William Donahue of the N.J. State Police Mounted Policing Unit and his horse, Phantom, who stole the show. Kudos to our PD and to all those involved!
The Township received fantastic news last week regarding our health insurance renewal rate which will only have a minimal increase of 2.7%, versus a premium hike of more than 22% last year for those municipalities who are enrolled in the New Jersey State Health Benefits Plan.
Mantua Township participated in the New Jersey State Health Benefits Plan up until the year 2017. We decided to shop around as a result of looming projections for significant premium increases if we stayed in the State of New Jersey’s Health Benefits Plan.
As a result of the Township’s favorable claim experience, we received an offer to enroll in the Southern New Jersey Regional Health Insurance Fund (for Employee Benefits) which is a fund that offers public entities a cost-effective source for providing quality health benefits to our employees. This SNJRHIF is made up of 44 public entities from Gloucester, Camden and Burlington counties.
The decision from our township committee to move away from State Health Benefits was beneficial since it provides a cost-effective health insurance plan that achieves significant savings for both our taxpayers and our workers, and allows us to position ourselves to see long term savings in our budget. As an example, in our first year of joining this fund, the Township saved $116,000.00 on health insurance costs.
On Sept. 21, the Glassboro Camden Line (GCL) project team reached-out to my office in order to schedule a small private working / informational exchange meeting in their effort to provide an update on the project; coordinate the GCL with Mantua development and strategic plans; and discuss the procurement process for the project. They are apparently reaching-out to all mayors where communities are directly impacted by this proposed rail line project. This meeting has been scheduled for a time in November. As part of this meeting, we plan to attempt the scheduling of a public informational session in Mantua Township as the GCL group had agreed to do earlier this year. We’ve also reached out to the GCL group this past week regarding the scheduling of this public meeting, and are still awaiting a response.
This small private working / informational exchange meeting will be the very first meeting that township officials will have with the GCL Project Office, other than a brief meeting years ago relative to the proposed train stops in Mantua. As promised, we will relay any important information received as it becomes available.
The Mantua Township Fire Department is teaming-up with the Mantua Township Schools’ Early Childhood Advisory Council for a “Trunk or Treat” which will be held at Chestnut Branch Park on Saturday, Oct. 21 from 1:00 p.m. until 3:00 p.m. If you’d like to help by donating candy in-advance, the drop-off sites are Sewell School, Centre City School, J. Mason Tomlin School or the Mantua Township Fire Department.
The “Chicken Advisory Board – Sub Committee” met last Tuesday, October 3. This is a working group that is in the infancy stages of evaluating our current ordinance as it pertains to the legality of owning chickens in our community. The group is currently reviewing other neighboring community pilot programs and ordinances, etc. in an effort to determine what options, if any, may be viable for Mantua Township’s future.
Upcoming Township Meetings and Events:
- Saturday, Oct. 14 at 10 a.m. is the grand opening of our new Disc Golf Course at Chestnut Branch Park which will be named, Tornado Crossing. In the event of rain, it will be moved inside to Township Administrative Building on Saturday at 10 a.m.
- The next Township Committee Meeting is Monday, Oct. 16 at 6:00 p.m. at the municipal building.
- Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 5 p.m. is the next Municipal Utilities Authority meeting at the municipal building.
- Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. is the next Land Use Board meeting at the municipal building.
- Thursday, Oct. 19 AT 7 p.m. is the next Fire District meeting at the Sewell Fire Station.
- Halloween will be celebrated on Tuesday, Oct.r 31 and trick-or-treat hours will be from 3 p.m. until 8 p.m. Curfew on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31 is 8:00 p.m.
On behalf of Deputy Mayor Pete Scirrotto and myself, and the entire Township Committee – we look forward to continuing our service with honesty, integrity and trustful leadership!
Respectfully,
Mayor Robert T. Zimmerman, MAS
