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Election result: Unofficial

The tallying of votes at the Borough Hall has been completed.

This is NOT the final result! Some Vote by Mail and Provisional Ballots remain to be counted.

The top three candidates, in order, at this time:

  1. Colleen Bianco BEZICH = 2009
  2. Frank TROY = 1810
  3. Kevin ROCHE = 1795

The above numbers will increase over the next day or two.

Votes per candidate, in ballot order:

  1. Frank TROY = 1810
  2. Kathryn RAICZYK = 296
  3. Colleen Bianco BEZICH = 2009
  4. Jeff KASKO = 990
  5. Kevin ROCHE = 1795
  6. Adam PUFF = 1436
  7. Daniel ZHANG = 557
  8. Mark RUSC = 920
  9. Write-In = 66

Total voters at this time = 1730

Image: Norman Rockwell, Election Day, 1944.  (Photo: Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.)

Election result: Coming!

Watch the tally live: HERE.

Unofficial results for the May 11, 2021 Board of Commissioners election in Haddonfield will be posted here as they become available, likely around 9pm this evening.

The numbers posted tonight will include:

  • Votes cast in person today at the ten polling places in Haddonfield.
  • Vote by Mail ballots returned by mail and processed to date, and
  • Vote by Mail ballots deposited in one of Camden County’s secure drop boxes and processed to date.

Some voters who received Vote by Mail ballots were under the impession that they would be able to vote in person (i.e. at a voting machine) at their polling place. That was not the case. Such voters were able to cast Provisional Ballots at their polling place, if they wished. Ballots cast provisionally will be added to the tally on Wednesday and Thursday, after they have been verified, along with Vote by Mail ballots postmarked by 8pm today and received on or before Thursday, May 13.

If the unofficial result posted tonight includes margins that are extremely close, it is possible that the final result could be different from the posted, unofficial result. The Borough Clerk is scheduled to take the canvas of votes on Friday.

Image: Norman Rockwell, Election Day, 1944.  (Photo: Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.)

NJPen publishes election guide

In advance of tomorrow’s Board of Commissioners election, NJPen.com invited each of the eight candidates “to tell the electorate a little about themselves ahead of the polling.”

Read the candidates’ statements and responses to NJPen.com’s questions HERE.

Correction: Vote by Mail Ballots

The Voter Guide for the May 1, 20211 Board of Commissioners election, published in the April 30 issue of Haddonfield Today, contains an error with respect to Vote by Mail ballots.

The guide lists four options for voting by mail. In fact, there are only three:

  • Mail your ballot. (Recommended as soon as possible. Ballots postmarked as late as May 11 will be counted.)
  • Place your ballot in a secure County drop box. (The nearest is outside the Haddon Township Municipal Building, 135 Haddon Avenue).
  • Take your ballot to the Board of Elections office in Blackwood.

The fourth option — taking your Vote by Mail ballot to your polling place on Election Day — is NOT available for the May 11 election. (It was an option for the November 2020 General Election, and may be in the future. But it is not an option for the 2021 Board of Commissioners election.)

Commissioners must respect approval process

To the Editor, fom Eileen Stilwell, Potter Street

The mad rush for final approval of the borough’s first affordable housing project before the May 11 election appears to be over.

On April 21, the Haddonfield Preservation Commission tabled the developer’s application to build 20 affordable apartments in the parking lot behind borough hall until its next regular meeting on May 19, despite pressure from the Borough and developer, Community Investment Strategies of Lawrenceville.

Armed with a team of lawyers and land-use professionals, CIS badgered HPC at the virtual meeting for a positive vote, so it could seek final approval from the Planning Board on May 4, seven days before the municipal election. HPC had no legal counsel that night to help clarify some of the complex issues. Members of HPC declined to vote, citing an incomplete application and an unclear vision of what precisely the developer planned to do within the historic district.

Any attempt by the borough to bypass the HPC and go directly to the Planning Board before the election in order to lock down one of its largest and most significant housing projects in decades, in my opinion, would be a grave abuse of power.

A potential end run for the developer might be to seek planning board approval  based on the footprint only of the Snowden project, excluding facades or relevant information about public safety, or the project’s ability to blend with and preserve the integrity of  the historic neighborhood. The presentation, no doubt, would suggest that HPC’s approval is anticipated at its next meeting.  Should this occur, I would urge HPC members to find some other way to serve their community, since such action by the borough would indicate their services  would no longer be needed.

Why have an historic commission if you ignore it? Why waste the enormous time volunteer board members invest in each application? Perhaps, it should be disbanded, if it is nothing but window dressing.

Should the commission decide to bypass the HPC, it should be done by public vote, so voters know which of the two incumbents running for re-election voted in favor.

Should they follow the rules — signaling that they, not the developer, are in charge — they should be applauded for their judgment.

Students to return to school

On Monday, April 19, 2021, students in Haddonfield Public Schools will return to school, full-time, in-person, for the first time in a year.

Suerintendent of Schools Chuck Klaus previewed the momentous development in letter to parents, guardians, staff, and students on March 31:

When our students and staff left school on March 16, 2020, most of us could not imagine they would continue in a virtual learning model through the end of the year and return to school in a hybrid model in September. The abrupt shift required schools to quickly re-imagine how to best deliver virtual instruction and serve our students. And of course the continuation of the pandemic required many additional changes in the areas of PPE, cleaning, ventilation, meal deliveries, athletics, and more.

Today we are approaching the point we have been anticipating for many, many months: initiating Phase III, bringing ALL tudents to school, all day, five days per week! (Of course, students and families may continue to choose the 100% virtual model through the end of this school year.)

The Leadership Team of Haddonfield School District has been working on this plan for months, anticipating the time when safety and health conditions would allow us to move forward. The following pages will show the new Phase III schedules, set to begin April 19th (grades 1-12) if major indicators continue to improve. (Preschool and kindergarten will continue in their current schedules.)

It is important to note, however, that the schedules for the original hybrid model (cohort A attending Monday and Tuesday, cohort B attending Thursday and Friday), the Phase II combined-cohort model, and the contingency model (if schools are forced to close by state or county mandates) are still contained in these pages. If health conditions worsen, we might have to return to one of these more restrictive schedules.

We appreciate the difficulties and the stresses placed on students, staff and families over the last year. We also realize that each of us has unique circumstances, perspectives, and feelings about how best to return to school. During this process, the Phase III model was explored and reviewed with feedback from families, students, staff, community members and frequent consultation with our district physician and nursing staff. As always, our planning must balance safety, instruction, and operations in a way to provide the best solution for all 1,500 families and 350 staff members in our district.

One new COVID-19 death; total now 15

The addition on Friday of a female in her 80s to the list of Haddonfield residents who have succumbed to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, brings Haddonfield’s death toll to 15.

To date, 587 local cases have been reported by the Camden County Department of Health, an increase of four from yesterday.

The addition of six public school cases on Thursday brings the district tally to 173.

Commissioners schedule new Bancroft hearing

The Commissioners announced today that they will hold a public hearing related to Bancroft on Tuesday, April 27, during their regular meeting already scheduled for that date.

The Commissioners were ordered to hold the hearing by Superior Court Judge Nan S. Famular. She is presiding over a dispute between the Borough and a group of residents that includes two former mayors, Jack Tarditi and Tish Colombi. She is requiring the Commissioners to re-do the portion of their January 16, 2018 meeting relating to the adoption of an amendment to the Bancroft Redevelopment Plan.

The reason for the “re-do” is that the Judge said she cannot evaluate the plaintiffs’ claims because the minutes of the Commissioners’ January 16, 2018 meeting did not note their specific reasons for approving amendments to the redevelopment plan. She ordered the Borough to record this “re-do” and provide her with a transcript.

Here is the Borough’s notice for the meeting:

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that, as directed by the Honorable Nan S. Famular, Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Camden County, in her “Order Denying Motion to Vacate Ordinance 2018-01 Without Prejudice and Remanding to Borough for Further Proceedings” dated as of April 1, 2021, the Board of Commissioners of the Borough of Haddonfield (the “Borough”) will hold a Public Hearing at its regularly scheduled public meeting on April 27, 2021 at 7:30 p.m. to be conducted via Zoom, a video and teleconferencing service, regarding Ordinance 2018-01 of the Borough, at which the Borough Commissioners shall place on the record their specific reasons for approving the “Bancroft Redevelopment Plan”, as amended January 16, 2018, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40A:12A-7(d) and (e).

During the week prior to and up to and including the date of such meeting, copies of Ordinance 2018-01 will be available at no cost via the Borough’s website at www.haddonfieldnj.org, by email request to the Borough Clerk at [email protected], and during regular business hours at the Administration Office of the Borough Hall, Room 101, for the members of the general public who shall request the same.

INSTRUCTIONS TO ATTEND/OBSERVE MEETING:  Members of the Public are welcome and encouraged to participate in the electronic meeting. The meeting will be held via Zoom. There are two options to join the meeting 1) through the Zoom App via a smartphone, computer or tablet via video link, or 2) phone audio using the following Zoom meeting access information:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83041911942?pwd=dCtxSUt5Q2xKVE5LVlZCWFFVRUZ0UT09

Meeting ID: 830 4191 1942
Passcode: 329789

Telephone:  Call # 1-301-715-8592; 1-312-626-6799; 1-646-558-8656; 1-253-215-8782; 1-346-248-7799; or 1-669-900-9128
Meeting ID/PIN: 830 4191 1942

Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 40:49-2, as amended, further notice is hereby given that the purpose of the forgoing ordinance is to amend the “Bancroft Redevelopment Plan” to reflect as set forth in Exhibit 3 to Ordinance 2018-01.

Videos of Commission candidate forum

Videos of the Board of Commissioners Candidate Forum, held on Monday, April 12 and sponsored by the Haddonfield Civic Association, may be viewed on the Association’s website, HERE.

There are separate videos for the opening statements, each of nine questions posed to the eight candidates, and closing statements.

The questions, asked of the candidates in random order by Janet Fisher-Hughes, the moderator provided by the League of Women Voters, were:

Question 1: What policy or advocacy differentiates you from the other candidates?

Question 2: Of the three commission seats – public works, public safety, and finance – with which of these areas do you think your strengths most closely align?

Question 3: What are your plans for improving infrastructure in town, such as fixing deteriorating roads and curbs or upgrading and modernizing borough-owned buildings?

Question 4: What will you do to improve Haddonfield’s sustainability plan?

Question 5: As commissioner what are your plans for providing tax savings to residents through shared services, cost savings, and/or revenue generation?

Question 6: What will you do as commissioner to improve communication, community engagement, and increase transparency of town decisions and actions?  As commissioner would you publicly get behind a pledge to record and post all public meetings?

Question 7: One issue facing the township is the resolution of the former Bancroft site.  What are your priorities and vision for the site?

Question 8: What is your position on the land swap between the Board of Education and the Borough to make Radnor Field Green Acres space?

Question 9: Many residents in town are concerned with the speeding that constantly takes place on the main roads and many of the connecting residential streets. What will you do about this ongoing problem?

COVID-19 has hit 1 in 20 locally

With the addition of two males and two females to the list of Haddonfield residents who have been confirmed positive for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, the local tally hit 579 today. That’s 49.94 individuals for every 1,000 of population (based on the 2010 Census) — or 1 in 20 residents.

A total of 14 Haddonfield residents have succumbed.

The Public Schools have reported 166 cases.