State of the Borough Address 2008 Mayor Letitia G. "Tish" Colombi

Good morning.

Let’s have a big round of applause for the kitchen crew and the servers and the clean-up crew and all the members of the Lions Club who make such a significant contribution to the quality of life in our community, not just on this day each year, but on numerous occasions throughout the year.

I want to thank Pastor Bill Getman and the Presbyterian Church for once again showing their hospitality in making these facilities available for this event.

In two weeks’ time, a billion or so people around the world will celebrate Chinese New Year.

Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha invited the animals to join him in celebrating the Chinese New Year. Twelve different animals responded to his invitation, and in their honor he named the twelve years of the Chinese zodiac. Thus we have the Year of the Dragon, the Year of the Rooster, the Year of the Rabbit, and so on.

The Chinese New Year that begins on February 7 will be the Year of the Rat. Despite the name, it’s supposed to be a good year. Last year – as we all know – was the Year of the ....pig!

But here in Haddonfield, last year was surely the Year of the Alligator. Or the reptile. Or the partially submerged log. Or whatever. Haddonfield certainly got its fair share of attention in May, thanks to the Creature in the Lagoon. And many of our residents certainly had a lot of fun, during the Fourth of July parade, with the idea that there was a crocosaurus in Hopkins Pond.

A Year of Transitions

In my mind, however, 2007 in Haddonfield was the Year of Transitions.

Within the municipal administration, we had three major transitions in 2007:
• Our longtime Library Director, Doug Rauschenberger, retired. And we welcomed Susan Briant.
• Our longtime Borough Administrator, Richard Schwab, retired. And we welcomed Sharon McCullough.
• Our longtime Public Works Director, Howard Frazier, retired. And we welcomed David Watson.

Those of us who worked with and relied upon Doug, Richard, and Howard for so many years looked to their retirement with a certain amount of trepidation. But I am happy to report that, in each case, the transition has been virtually seamless, and in each case these new executives have taken charge confidently and are making their mark in carrying out the business of the Borough.

Transitions at the top in 2007 were not limited to the Borough. Our School District had its share of changeovers as well:
• Pat Haines resigned from the Board of Education after 11 years of service, five of them as president. The Board elected Steve Weinstein, unanimously, to take over the reins.
• We were sad to see Joe O’Brien leave us after only two years as Superintendent of Schools, but glad to have Alan Fegley in the wings, ready, willing, and supremely able to fill Joe’s big boots.
• The School District welcomed a new Assistant Superintendent, a new Director of Technology, one new elementary school principal, and one interim principal. And Michael Wilson transitioned from Lizzy Haddon to become principal at the High School.

During 2007 we also witnessed something that nobody believed would ever happen. Rosie Hymerling – the Queen of the Kindergarten – retired after more than 35 years of reading, and singing, and dancing, and cheerleading – and baking! – for thousands of Haddonfield’s youngest students.

A number of our community organizations experienced transitions of various kinds during 2007.

Perhaps the most notable was a new name, a new performing home, and, potentially, a new office location for The Haddonfield Symphony. In September, the Haddonfield Symphony changed its name to Symphony in C, to better reflect its mission, its constituency, and its new home base in the Gordon Theatre on the Rutgers Camden campus. And incidentally, we must congratulate the Symphony on the naming of a former conductor, Alan Gilbert, to lead the New York Philharmonic, one of the top orchestras in the world.
• The Haddonfield Farmers’ Market celebrated its first year of service to the community. Look for it to open in the spring, possibly in a new location.
• The Haddonfield Japan Exchange brought more than 15 Japanese students to Haddonfield in June, and is right now selecting the members for a Haddonfield contingent that will spend two weeks in Japan this summer.
• First Night celebrated ten years of family-oriented, alcohol-free fun on New Year’s Eve.
• The insurance agency of Henry Bean & Sons marked 75 years in business.
• The Rotary Club celebrated its 80th anniversary.
• Mt. Olivet Baptist Church marked 115 years and Grace Church ... one hundred and sixty-five.
• And on October 28 – exactly 178 years after it was formed in Haddonfield – the Methodist Church had a ribbon cutting for its magnificent new addition and renovation on Warwick Road.
• And on December 20, the tiny – but growing! – congregation of the Mt Pisgah AME Church broke ground for the construction of a new church on Ellis Street, replacing the 126-year-old building that was destroyed by fire in June 2006.

More Than Our Share of Tragedies

Speaking of fires. Prompt action by one of our residents, who ran to the fire house to raise the alarm, and an equally prompt response by our Fire Company, averted a potentially huge fire on Kings Highway. The Mane Stop Salon & Spa – in The Shops at 116 Kings Highway East – was totally destroyed, but the building was saved.

We lost a house on Trueman Avenue, however, and another on Kings Highway West. And on each occasion we saw the community of Haddonfield do what it does best: come instantly to the aid of those in need.

We welcomed a new Pearce state-of-the art fire truck, which introduced foam mixed with water to help extinguish fire faster. And since we use it to bring those winning sports through town, it is the first of our fire fleet to be painted Bulldog colors, black and red. Our students got three rides on a fire truck this year as state champions. The boys and girls cross country teams and the girls soccer team all won state championships. And most importantly, our Bulldogs won the Thanksgiving game against Haddon Heights, a rivalry that has gone on for over a century.

We saw the same overwhelming outpouring of support – of neighbor helping neighbor – when one of our residents died as a result of a collision between her bicycle and a car at the intersection of Haddon Avenue and Maple. She left an eighth-grade daughter whose only family in the region was .. the community of Haddonfield. The daughter, Ketura Tamu, now lives with an aunt, who relocated here from Virginia and a sister, who relocated here from Chicago, in an apartment provided by the Presbyterian Church, right next door on Chestnut Street. And much of the furniture in the apartment was donated by the nephews of Carmen and Mary Lou Cullurafi, longtime residents who died this year within a few months of each other. Mary Lou was Citizen of the Year in 1995, and she and Carmen were both great supporters of services and programs for senior citizens in Haddonfield. Those of us who knew Carmen and Mary Lou know that when Mary Lou died within a couple of months of Carmen, it was from a broken heart. They would be thrilled to know that some of their possessions were put to such good use.

Our community rallied around the Gallagher and Tarditi families in early November, when Sarah, a daughter of Jack and Barbara Tarditi, lost a long and courageous battle with leukemia. Another resident – and a great community contributor – who also was lost to leukemia in 2007 was Bill Lavery. His service to the Methodist Church and as a member of the Board of Education was extraordinary.

Haddonfield in the Spotlight

No loss was more widely felt, or had greater ramifications, than that of JT Haggerty, a senior student at Haddonfield Memorial High School. His tragic death, followed a few months later by the loss of another High School student, Patrick Gibson, brought the issue of underage drinking in Haddonfield into sharp focus. At about the time that JT died, reports began to circulate of a “teens gone wild” party in a home on Maple Avenue. The details left most adults speechless, as did subsequent showings of photographs, downloaded from the Internet, of teenage parties where alcohol was clearly the focus of the fun.

Overnight, Haddonfield found itself in the spotlight. We did not seek the attention, and we did not relish it. But we did not avoid it either. In fact, the leadership of our community took a prompt and proactive approach and I want to say at this time how grateful I am to the leaders of the School District, the PTA’s, the Civic Association, the Council of Churches, and the Rotary Club for joining me and my fellow Commissioners, so promptly and so strongly, in addressing this incredibly difficult but incredibly important issue.

Haddonfield had some luck on its side as well, the publication in the spring, of the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking. This report not only made it painfully clear that underage drinking is a public health issue of national proportions, but also laid out guidelines which communities, educators, and families can use to tackle the problem head-on.

We held a number of meetings of various types to discuss the issues and in the summer of 2007 the Commissioners appointed a number of community members to a reconstituted Municipal Alliance. In the past, the Alliance had been based in the School District. Now, it has a community-wide foundation.

Public Works Activity

During 2007, the Commissioners maintained the commitment to improving not only our roads but also traffic and pedestrian safety. We spent around $1 million on road construction in 2007, and we have budgeted to spend another million dollars in 2008. We want to thank the residents of Rhoads Avenue for their patience during a very long construction period on their street. Hopefully, the finished product will help them forget the weeks and months of inconvenience.

Last Tuesday night, we authorized the expenditure of up to $1.75 million to purchase and install new water meters throughout the town. That’s a lot of money, but we’re doing it because a lot of revenue is being lost through inaccurate readings from meters that, in some cases, are 50 years old and should have been retired years ago. We will be able to read these new meters electronically from a vehicle as it passes by. So we will derive some savings in the cost of labor as well. The money that will be used to purchase these meters is being taken from our water and sewer account and will not result in an increase in taxes.

In April, when we celebrate Earth Day, you will see some changes in the way we collect and dispose of recyclable materials. New recycling bins, a green one for the collection of grass and yard waste, and a blue one, specifically for the collection of paper, will be delivered to every homeowner. In collaboration with the Environmental Club at the high school, we will be purchasing recycling containers for all our schools in the district, to collect paper and bottles and cans. This an initiative of the school club, and the money used to purchase these containers will come from our recycling grant money. We hope to expand this effort to office buildings, some of the largest generators of recyclables – to maximize the amount of material that is recycled and minimize the amount that is trashed. These initiatives dovetail neatly with actions the School District is taking to reduce waste, cut costs, and “go green.”

During 2007, the Commissioners also maintained their commitment to Haddonfield’s business district. We believe absolutely that a downtown is as important to the rest of a town as a porch is to the rest of a house. It gave us great pleasure to welcome a wide variety of new businesses to Haddonfield during 2007, including a number of new restaurants, namely Fuji, Casa Bella Trattoria, and Javier, plus some competition for Starbucks – Tivoli Kaffe. Many people do not realize it, but you can eat out every night for two full weeks in Haddonfield without eating at the same place twice – everything from fine dining to take-out – which means you can dine at a different place once a week for three months.

On behalf of the Board of Commissioners, I want to record our thanks to the members of the Partnership for Haddonfield for the commitment and creativity they bring to the task of managing and promoting our downtown. It’s not an easy job, and it can be a thankless job. But all of us are the beneficiaries, in many ways, every day.

If Ed and Neal and I were to adequately address all the topics that we as Commissioners deal with in the course of a year, we would have to ask the Lions Club to serve us lunch as well as breakfast. So it is inevitable that some subjects will not be mentioned, or not get the attention they deserve.

Transitions for the Library

But one matter I do want to mention before I close is our Public Library. Our new Library Director, Susan Briant, is determined to ensure that this vital community resource is responsive to community needs, now and in the future. A series of focus groups held at the Library in the fall was very productive, as was a “community conversation” held at the Borough Hall earlier this month. This week, the Library posted a survey on its Web site in order to solicit the views of the community at large on a variety of issues. I urge you all to complete the questionnaire on the Library’s Web site: haddonfieldlibrary.org. Or ask for a paper copy the next time you visit.

And speaking of visiting. Some people would have us believe that it is only a matter of time, thanks to the Internet, before libraries go the way of the dinosaurs. I want you to know that nothing could be further from the truth. In 2007, our library recorded more than 115,000 visits. Borrowers took out nearly 120,000 books and audiovisual materials. During the summer of 2007, more than 450 children and teens participated in the Summer Reading program, reading nearly 4,000 books. Senior citizens are taking computer lessons. And teenagers are using the library in ever-increasing numbers.

We know something about dinosaurs in Haddonfield. And we know something about libraries. They’re both alive and well in Haddonfield, and I assure you they both will be with us for many years to come. I urge you all to become actively involved in our Library’s transition from what it has been in the past to what it ought to be in the future.

In closing, I want to record my thanks to three groups of people.

First, to Sharon McCullough, our Borough Administrator; Rick Tsonis, our Police Chief; Joe Riggs, our Fire Chief; David Watson, our Superintendent of Public Works, and Susan Briant, our Library Director, and to the dedicated people who work in their departments. They are all fine people and they do a fine job.

Second, to the scores of residents, business owners, and property owners – there are close to 150 of them – who serve as volunteers on the Borough’s many boards, commissions, and committees. They are all fine people and they do a fine job.

And finally, to my fellow Commissioners – Neal Rochford and Ed Borden. They are both fine people, they do a fine job, and it is a privilege to work alongside them in service to this town we love so very much, this town we call home, this town we call Haddonfield.

Thank you.