At the Nov. 9 meeting of the Voorhees Township Committee, committee inserted additional revenue into this year’s budget thanks to funds from the Camden County Recreation Facility Enhancement Grant program.
Township administrator Larry Spellman said there were three grants each at $25,000, and all will be going toward improving parks within the township.
Spellman said the first grant would go toward improving parking lot accessibility for the handicapped at Stafford Woods.
According to Spellman, the second grant would go toward replacing and upgrading playground areas at Round Hill Road, Lake Villa and Sheppard Road.
Spellman said the final grant would go toward replacing and upgrading playground areas at Ashland Woods and Hale Park.
“We’re just so happy to get those grants,” Spellman said. ”It makes it so much easier to upgrade our play areas.”
At the meeting, committee also approved an application to slightly amend its Community Development Block Grant for this year to now ask for funds to pay for a driver for the township’s new senior bus.
Spellman said the township was originally going to use the funds from the block grant to purchase a new senior bus outright, but recently the township received another grant for that purpose from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission as part of the 2015 Competitive Congestion Mitigation Air Quality program.
The new senior bus falls under the program, as it uses compressed natural gas, similar to the compressed natural trash and recycling trucks the township already uses.
“We got a DRPA grant to pay for the bus, so we’re just using the development grant to now pay for the bus driver instead,” Spellman said.
In other news:
• Committee reappointed Police Chief Louis Bordi to the position of the township’s emergency management coordinator.
In the event of a crisis, emergency management coordinators coordinate activities between emergency management agencies, local emergency response agencies and the general public.
Spellman said the state requires the township reappoint its emergency management professional every three years, and Bordi has always done a great job.
• Committee passed a resolution entering into a shared services purchasing agreement with the borough of Somerdale for upcoming road and drainage projects.
• Committee approved a small alteration to the 2015 Road Program with an increase of $6,930 for an additional sidewalk to be installed along School Lane.
Spellman said the addition of the funds comes from a grant from the Safe Routes to Schools program and will allow the township to extend the sidewalk the township is already installing along Kresson Road near Rabinowitz Field.
• The next meeting of the Voorhees Township Committee is scheduled for Nov. 23.
