In Moorestown, Debate Over How to Spend Open Space Fund Continues

Township council has before it a plan to improve three athletic fields at a cost of about $2.5 to 3 million—to be paid for, in part, by funds from the Open Space Trust Fund—but Mayor John Button says council won’t be acting on those plans just yet.

Kevin Loftus, a member of the Recreation Advisory Committee and the K.I.D.S. Initiative sub-committee, said the township received in the last few weeks design specifications for field improvements drawn up by Alaimo Engineering and Taylor Design Group. He expected council to make a decision, or at the very least have a discussion about them, in the near future—possibly as early as this week’s regular meeting.

However, Button said it’s prudent for council, given the sensitive nature of this issue, to take more time. The matter is not on the agenda for Monday night’s council meeting.

“I don’t think we’ll be having this discussion until we have more information,” he said. “I’m looking for more facts related to that whole issue of using (Open Space) funds for this use. We’re looking at what other communities are doing.”

While he still believes paying for K.I.D.S. with Open Space money is an allowed use, the mayor said the issue has been “too controversial” to move forward without more discussion.

“It’s great to hear,” said Mark Hines, who, along with his wife Elizabeth Endres, founded  (MSOS), a group advocating the use of Open Space funds solely for open space acquisition and maintenance. “It’s what we’ve been asking for.”

Members of MSOS, and other like-minded individuals, argue Open Space funds should only be used for “acquiring and maintaining open space for conservation,” as stated in the .

The counterargument—espoused by Loftus and other members of the Recreation Advisory Committee, as well as some members of council—is that those funds can also be used for other purposes, including athletic field maintenance and improvement.

The township collects approximately $464,000 each year through the Open Space tax levy of 1¢ per $1,000 of assessed value.

In April, council (in a 3-2 vote) of up to $217,845 of Open Space money for engineering, design and bidding expenses for Phase I of K.I.D.S., which includes improvements at Wesley Bishop North and South and John Pryor parks, ranging from upgraded drainage systems and resodding to the addition of artificial turf.

Loftus said the township has a few different options for how it could pay for the field improvements. The most attractive option, the one the advisory committee is recommending, is to issue a bond for $2.5 to 3 million and pay it off over a 15-year period, with annual debt service payments in the amount of $230,000.

He said the various athletic clubs and recreation programs in town have pledged a combined $50,000 toward the annual debt service, though the amount is subject to fluctuation depending on how much of the recommended field improvements the township opts to do.

The remaining $180,000 would either come entirely out of the Open Space Trust Fund—the “worst-case scenario,” Loftus said—or be paid with a combination of trust fund money and corporate sponsorships, which the K.I.D.S. Task Force is currently pursuing.

Loftus said it’s very possible the project will end up costing less than the engineer’s estimate.

“Based on the construction climate now, I expect the bids to be below the engineer’s estimate,” said Loftus, president of Loftus Construction in Cinnaminson. “There are just so many contractors out there who just don’t have work.”

Hines and the other MSOS supporters, while not opposed to the K.I.D.S. project, are against using any money from the fund if it’s not for open space acquisition or maintenance of previously acquired open space.

Whether or not there’s a legal challenge to be made against using the trust fund for K.I.D.S.—and Hines believes there is—the fact of the matter is it’s “not what we want,” he said. “If you polled 100 people in Moorestown, I think you’d find 85 to 90 who’d say, ‘We want it used for open space and nothing else.’”

He said he believes people would even be in favor of a tax increase—to pay for projects like K.I.D.S. and other recreation/athletic field improvements—if it meant preserving the trust fund.

Hines pointed out the township already uses about $240,000 from the fund annually to pay for maintenance at other parks, including . Factor in potentially $180,000 or so for K.I.D.S., he said, and that’s a significant chunk of what the Open Space tax brings in annually.

What Hines and others are missing, according to Loftus, is the approximately $700,000 a year the township receives from the county and state as reimbursements for previous open space acquisition. Those revenues, Loftus said, will keep the Open Space Trust Fund from being diminished even if the township spends the money on K.I.D.S.

There’s currently about $1.6 million in the fund.