What You Missed From This Week's Council Meeting

For those who couldn’t make it to Monday night’s township council meeting, there were a few interesting items that didn’t make it into a full story, but were nonetheless noteworthy. Here are a few leftover tidbits from the meeting:

• Township attorney Thomas Coleman said PREIT expects to mail a check to the township for $2.4 million—to cover the rest of what it owes from the purchase of four liquor licenses—within the next two weeks. The township . Coleman said he also received a revised application for a liquor license from East Gate Square, which will be considered at council’s Oct. 29 meeting. When asked, he also noted that East Gate had expressed “tacit interest” in the sixth and final available liquor license, “but nothing formal at this point.”

• Council approved an additional $3,000 of nonpensionable compensation for township manager Scott Carew, as part of an incentive program that was part of his contract. Mayor John Button said council agreed on a set of criteria—benchmarks they wanted Carew to reach during the first half of the year—the idea being “to incent, if you will, exceptional behavior.” Button said the pot of incentive money (for the entire year) was $10,000, $3,000 of which Carew will receive for his work in the first six months. The remainder of the money is still in play for the second half of the year, Button said. The incentive program is “something we want to push down” to the township employees who report to Carew, the mayor said. Carew stated he plans to approach the bargaining units during upcoming contract negotiations to gauge their interest on entering into an incentive program as well.

• The police department bills the school district quarterly for responding to false alarms, and the district has asked the township to waive those fees, Carew told council members. The most recent bill is only for $1,900, he said, so “it’s certainly not something that’s going to hurt us financially. The only problem is the precedent it sets.” Button asked whether the false alarms are a rectifiable problem, and directed Carew to seek more clarification for council to make a more informed decision.

• Carew said Moorestown Youth Baseball has promised to pay for expanded improvements to the construction already underway at Pryor Park. The original project called for the addition of artificial turf to the existing backstop, with a concrete border. Moorestown Youth Baseball wants to move the backstop back, and lay down more turf, to provide more room to play, Carew said. “Now’s the right time to do it, while the field is under construction.” He said the expansion will cost approximately $14,500, all of which the club has vowed to pay for. The additions to the project have slowed it down by a few days, he said, “but certainly not enough to affect next season.”

Council will hold its next regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 29, in the IT room at Moorestown High School.