WOOLWICH TWP. — The Woolwich Township Committee convened on May 19 to discuss its 2025 municipal budget and details regarding ongoing projects.
Lois Yarrington, the township’s chief financial officer, presented the 2025 municipal budget to the committee for its first reading. Although there will be an increase in your total tax bill, this is from county, school, and library taxes. The township rate, according to Deputy Mayor Michael Nocentino, will remain flat at 0.530 and has been since at least 2023.
The municipal budget includes a surplus of $3.8 million. Nocentino expressed satisfaction with the surplus. “I’m pleased with where we are. I looked at older budgets, and our surplus was once around $450,000. It’s great to see that we are in a much better position now,” he said.
Mayor Natalie Matthias also referenced a staffing issue that led to nine fire calls that weren’t able to be responded to. “We did not have volunteers, which is why the staffing issue has become more of an issue,” Matthias said.
In an attempt to combat this, she suggested possibly allocating funds in the budget to allow for the township to offer a stipend-type program for volunteers or potential full-time fire positions if needed. The budget public hearing and final adoption will take place on June 16.
Also on the agenda were Resolutions 133 to 135, all related to the Pump Station and Force Main project, and proposed payments to Precision Land Development, LLC. However, the committee decided to table all three of the resolutions until their next meeting for further review.
As described, resolution 133 proposed a change order that would increase the township’s total cost for the project by $28,960.50 due to a PVC surcharge, unforeseen field conditions, and changes to the design and bid documents required for permit approval. Resolutions 134 and 135 involved approving payment requests 14 and 15, in the amounts of $372,261.13 and $466,546.13.
Committeeman Craig Frederick recommended the approval delay to allow for a thorough review of the material costs. He raised concerns that the township might be getting billed at current, potentially inflated material prices rather than the original prices from when the materials were actually purchased, several years ago.
The committee also authorized the township to apply for the Local Efficiency Achievement Program (LEAP) Grant for the fire company. The grant program from the state of New Jersey sets out to fund and assist departments with enhancing the benefits of shared service initiatives. Mayor Matthias explained that $100,000 is being applied for, and that the Township of Woolwich, Swedesboro, Logan Township, and South Harrison Township will all also submit applications for the program.
Nocentino, who also acts as liaison to the environmental commission, shared that soft plastic such as plastic bags and food wrappers, is currently being collected for the Trex Recycling Challenge, and if more than 1,000 pounds of soft film plastics and packaging is collected, a bench will be awarded.
The collection box is located in the lobby of the municipal building. “Your plastic bags cannot be recycled in your recycling cans, but they can be recycled into those collection bins,” he added.
It was also shared that the committee plans to start recording their meetings and post them on the township website for residents who couldn’t make it in person to stay in the know about what’s going on. The township is still working out the fine details on whether they will do closed captioning and if the video recordings will be posted directly following the meeting, or after the meeting minutes have been approved at the next meeting.
By Asiya Robinson and Karen E. Viereck
