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 items on the agenda that didn’t make it into a full story, but were nonetheless noteworthy. Here are a few leftover tidbits from the meeting:

• Representatives from PREIT, including CEO Joe Coradino, will attend council’s Aug. 6 meeting, according to township attorney Thomas Coleman. At that meeting, council is expected to formally award . Once that’s done, Coleman said Sgt. Lee Lieber would begin vetting PREIT—background checks, fingerprinting, etc.—and within 30 days the township should be in a position to issue the licenses. PREIT submitted proposals of $1,000,005 per license, and the township already has $1.6 million in hand (each license required a $400,000 “good faith” deposit).

• Council will hold a special workshop at 8 a.m. Tuesday, at the , to discuss the . Township manager Scott Carew said all the professionals involved with the project will be in attendance to “give council a full accounting of where we are.” He also said he and financial officer Tom Merchel will be looking for direction from council on whether it wants to bid the project first, then bond for it, or vice versa. “The logic of going out to bid first is obvious; then you know how much you need to bond,” said Carew. “The logic of bonding first … is because you have a better chance of getting a more serious bidder and a more serious bid.” Carew said he, Merchel and the professionals involved with the project recommend the latter course of action.

• According to the agenda for the Tuesday workshop, council is also expected to take up a discussion—continued from this week’s regular meeting—regarding funding $405,000 of improvements at South from the Open Space, Recreation, Farmland And Historic Preservation Trust Fund. Council tabled a decision on that project——after Pete Palko, commissioner of Moorestown Youth Flag Football and Republican council candidate, warned going ahead with the project now would dramatically affect the league’s upcoming season. “I don’t know what I would do with the families that would possibly be affected by this,” he told council on Monday. Carew concurred with Palko’s assessment, saying, “Clearly doing that project now is not going to work.” He said he and recreation director Theresa Miller spoke with Palko and others involved with flag football to discuss the “most optimum schedule” to begin work on the project, which could be at the end of the season in mid-/late November.

• Council held off on bonding for the sports lighting replacement project at and parks because they were still waiting to find out whether the township would be awarded a $250,000 recreation grant. According to the Burlington County Times, freeholders approved the grant earlier this week—though Carew said the township has yet to receive official word.

• Carew mentioned there have been very preliminary, behind-the-scenes discussions about the formation of an "arts advocacy committee," similar to the Economic Development Advisory Committee or Recreation Advisory Committee. "Considering the depth of arts we have in town ... it might be something for council to consider," he said.

Council will hold its next regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 6 in the IT room at .