MICKLETON — At their meeting on Aug. 13, the East Greenwich Township Committee held a public hearing that approved the application for a long-term tax exemption and financial agreement with Huff Lane AP Urban Renewal for a commercial distribution warehouse.
The warehouse should break ground in September, according to East Greenwich Township Mayor Dale Archer.
The agreement will be under a pilot program. A pilot program is an experimental short-term trial, or feasibility study. Archer said it was the town’s second one and anticipates many more. Huff will be paying the township in lieu of taxes “The total pilot is worth $13,966,400.00 over a 30-year plan,” the mayor explained. “Year one we will receive $224,000 with a yearly average over 30 years at $465,550.”
“This includes no children to our schools, no trash or any other Public Works activity,” Archer added. “Clean and lucrative tax revenue directly to the township for the next 30 years.”
Huff Lane is looking to construct a 283,040 square foot distribution center, including 14,460 of office space, 60 truck parking spaces and 190 passenger car parking spaces.
“This is really setting up the future of East Greenwich,” Archer commented. “The best part we still have more to come.”
Elsewhere, there was also a public hearing on a bond ordinance for road improvements to Quaker Road. Archer noted that it was funded by a New Jersey Department of Transportation grant. “Our roads are not necessarily in the best of health,” he added.
Another ordinance was introduced that amended and supplemented the East Greenwich Township code to explicitly prohibit residency or domicile in campgrounds. Archer explained that no stay at the campgrounds can be longer than two weeks without a party checking back in and registering again.
A domicile is a person’s legal residence, and the place where they intend to make it their permanent home. A residence is where someone is living currently.
In other resolutions, the Committee authorized a salary increase for Utilities Clerk Christine Monaco and gave the East Greenwich Municipal Joint Court permission to advertise for a part-time Violations Clerk. Another resolution saw the Committee authorize deployment of a Chevrolet Camaro for traffic enforcement functions.
Also, the Committee adopted an amendment to the Police Department’s Rules and Regulations that would establish a policy restricting the use of department vehicles. One more bill saw East Greenwich come to an understanding with the American Red Cross for Coordinated Emergency Management Services.
In other departments, Archer pointed out that Public Works would be adding two gazebos to Thompson Park. Also, a crew from Fox 29 News in Philadelphia recently paid a visit to the Sandlot baseball field in Clarksboro.
The kids league is very quiet and informal and welcomes children who have not played baseball before. Some of the limited rules say that the kids play a different position every inning, and five runs scored in one inning is the maximum.
Archer noted that one of the things the players seemed to enjoy most was that they didn’t hear their parents’ voices.
by Robert Holt
