Council Delays Decision on Spending Open Space Dollars

Pending the result of STEM’s lawsuit, council Monday night delayed a decision on whether to use money from the Open Space Trust Fund to pay for new lighting at two township parks.

Council was set to approve the expenditure of up to $455,000 from the Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund to install new lights at and parks. Several lights were removed late last year .

However, with the matter of how the township is allowed to spend money from the Trust Fund still unsettled, township attorney Thomas Coleman advised council to wait.

Superior Court Judge Ronald Bookbinder on the North project. However, Bookbinder did not rule on the merits of the overall case, and warned Coleman that if the township used the fund, it could be on the hook for the expended dollars.

“I’m not going to decide this case because you spent money,” the judge said. “If Moorestown does something, that’s your risk.”

In the suit, STEM ; Jeff Young and Maple Dawson, presumably, were not.

Mayor John Button——said last week, following Bookbinder’s ruling, he’s inclined to wait.

“The prudent thing to do is to wait to use this money,” Button said. “(The judge’s ruling) is not an automatic ticket to use the money.”

His fellow council members agreed, voting unanimously Monday to table the use of the fund for the lighting improvements until the case is settled. Coleman said he believes that could occur by council’s Sept. 10 meeting.

Council also tabled awarding a contract to Lance Electric, Inc. for installing the lights.

The township received a $250,000 grant from the county—from its own Open Space Trust Fund—for the lighting project, which would reduce the amount of money taken from the township’s Trust Fund.

Whether Bookbinder’s decision on the use of the township’s Trust Fund could have any implications for how the county spends its fund is yet to be seen.