Five Big Takeaways from the January 2024 Cherry Hill Town Council Meeting
- January is when contracts are handed out and as expected, the perennial favs were awarded their contracts. The biggest contract goes to George Norcross’ firm Conner, Strong and Buckelew who will receive 6% of the township’s insurance expenses. For additional information, including the JIF’s budget numbers, here is the website for the Camden County Joint Insurance Fund, to which Cherry Hill township pays its 6% fee. Next up, Remington & Vernick Engineer, this firm was awarded a hefty $750,000, and in local flavor, Collingswood Mayor Jim Maley’s firm was awarded the contract for the township’s Redevelopment Attorney.
2. Cherry Hill Shuffle Day! This 2024 shuffle has occurred because the former council president became the mayor and the former town council vice-president became the new mayor’s chief of staff. The clerk did announce that the Cherry Hill Democratic Committee met earlier in January to put forth 6 replacements and from that meeting these two new members were nominated by the current council and as predicted here unanimously approved. Our new appointed town council members are Dan DiRenzo and Jill Regen-Hulnick. DiRenzo, age 72, is a Zoning board member, retired Cherry Hill fire fighter, resident of the West side of town. Regen-Hulnick, age 44, is an East side resident, active in Jewish causes and Chief Impact Officer with BBYO, a Jewish teen movement. The two new council members gave brief remarks saying they were excited to get to work to serve their community. We hope they will truly represent all people of the community.
3. Chevy Malibus, 3 of them, gas powered, were approved for purchase for the Police Investigative Unit, utilizing funds from the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey. The Malibus will cost a total of $76,939.50. With that, our public schools will continue the long standing practice of funding field trips and buying pencils with bake sales and car washes…hey, bring those Malibus over for a car wash.
4. A new sustainability plan called the Cherry Hill Community Energy Plan was presented, this is in response to the state’s Energy Master Plan Pathway to 2050, which aims for 100% clean energy by 2050. This blueprint presented by consultant Pennoni Associates is to help Cherry Hill achieve reductions in energy usage and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Cherry Hill will now apply for a $250,000 implementation grant from the BPU. Sustainability is certainly a popular buzzword, and to achieve true sustainability, governments must stop engaging in greenwashing which makes a show of environmental concerns rather than taking concrete, measurable steps to dramatically move away from burning fossil fuels and lowering our greenhouse gas emissions. South Jersey Progressive Dems are committed to tangible environmental sustainability and will be watching for Cherry Hill’s implementation of the energy plan and will be holding Cherry Hill accountable.
5. Best comment from the public: “the mouthful of monetary figures that were read earlier, could we maybe have them printed on a paper? That’s all.”
