Residents fed up with a perceived lack of communication from the borough over a recent rise in home break-ins and car thefts put out a call this week to organize under the “Haddonfield Safety Commission” banner, according to a post on the Facebook group Haddonfield United.

There were three home breakins last week, reported police chief Jason Cutler. “Two we feel are connected, and one isn’t. I know there’s a lot of chatter on social media, and we’ll report out what we can report out, but we can’t discuss our patrol tactics and manpower deployment,” he said.

“That said, we know it’s extremely concerning, and disconcerting, when burglars break into an occupied dwelling. We, too, are also bound by the rules of information release of our partner agencies, county and state partners, who dictate what information can be released to the public,” said Cutler. Photos and videos can’t be shared because it “could interfere with active investigations or prevent us from apprehending a suspect.”

Mayor Colleen Bianco Bezich and commissioner Frank Troy expressed surprise Monday night at the commission’s business meeting when asked if they knew of the fledgling group’s existence. Troy was quick to note that any such group wouldn’t be formally sanctioned by the governing body but said as a commissioner, he welcomes any citizen participation. Bianco Bezich, the director of public safety for the borough, has reiterated at every public meeting since last summer that residents can stay up to date on crime in the borough by downloading the Haddonfield Happenings app, and she did so again on Monday.

Bianco Bezich’s administration has released two summary crime reports, one mid-year 2023 and one year-end, released in March, that show crime statistics for Haddonfield going back to 2014. Car thefts indeed doubled in 2023 to 14 total, compared with the nine-year average of seven, but burglaries were significantly lower, only 27 compared with the nineyear average of 49. Instances of criminal mischief (69) and disorderly conduct (408) in 2023 also surpassed their respective nine-year averages but only slightly. Lower than the nineyear averages were the categories of domestic violence, fraud, and non-auto related theft.

The Retrospect compared Haddonfield’s auto theft and burglary statistics with Moorestown’s, using statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Crime Data Explorer. The Burlington County bedroom community has close to twice the number of Haddonfield residents but reported only 16 auto thefts in 2022, the last year for which statistics are available. Its nine-year average is 10 car thefts annually. There were 28 burglaries in 2022, almost the same number as Haddonfield’s in 2023.

Bianco Bezich expressed compassion for the homeowners who’ve experienced break-ins Monday, saying “27 is too many burglaries if you’re a victim. The HPD will continue working around the clock to prevent and solve these crimes.” Cutler did mention the HPD’s apprehension of a suspect charged with the recent spate of burglaries on Mechanic St., now behind bars in Atlantic County.

On the Haddonfield United Facebook page, the author notes “our goal is simple, to find a way to come together as a community, to find solutions to stop the criminal activity. This isn’t about expressing a particular point of view, it’s about working with the local authorities, to come up with solutions together.”

Pennies on the Dollar for Boxwood?

A resolution passed at the April 8 commissioner’s work session allowed the Boxwood Hall deal to move forward, and scrutiny of the purchase of sale agreement shows the borough has decided to sell the 1.4-acre tract for $200,000 after paying $1.8 million for the property in 2014.

The resolution refers to three documents including the purchase agreement; a redevelopment agreement which would have details such as exactly what will be preserved on the property and any payment-inlieu- of-taxes arrangement; and an amendment to the adopted redevelopment plan, scheduled for review at the May planning board meeting. The Retrospect requested all three documents through an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request, which went unfilled at press time.

“While the purchase price might be underwhelming,” said Bianco Bezich Monday, “no one has offered us any more for it.” Troy added that he was “keeping my campaign pledge” to get something done with the town’s dilapidated but historic properties. Similar agreements for prospective new owners of Lullworth Hall are also nearly complete.

Stormwater Award Appeal

Borough solicitor Salvatore Siciliano said Monday, in response to resident Anne Hearing’s question, that the borough plans to appeal the $21.7 million awarded four families by a Superior Court jury, for physical and emotional damage suffered during the June 20, 2019 superstorm. He offered no further information. Legal sources consulted by The Retrospect had noted that judges routinely review large awards made by juries, looking for evidence of a “runaway” jury award that is likely to be overturned on appeal.

Stormwater II

Stormwater complaints continue to pour in from different sections of town — one being the mayor’s own Hawthorne Avenue neighborhood. Tom Heine asked why his neighbors were not being cited for sump pumps pumping water into the street, clear violations of borough stormwater management law.

There was no response from the governing body, including Bianco Bezich, who Heine said “passes my driveway every day,” and can see “for herself” the ice build-ups in the winter, and terrible-smelling sludge in the summer. “Plus, there are literally hundreds of teenaged drivers on our street, and if they hit that ice they could slide right out onto Grove St.,” Heine worried.

“Also it’s not right: most of us spent thousands of dollars in drain systems to re-direct water onto our own properties, and there are five of my neighbors who just keep pumping water into the street.”

Asked later who in the borough is responsible for writing citations out to sump-happy neighbors, borough administrator Sharon McCullough replied it is the zoning officer, and she also confirmed the officer could assess violations backward in time. Haddonfield passed a “dump water onto your own property” ordinance in 2018.

Another close-by neighbor, Tom Levine, whose driveway is on Hawthorne but whose home fronts Grove claimed stormwater “doesn’t go down our (storm) sewer drain, it goes around it,” and added that he thinks the drain has actually “never worked. And when people rake their leaves into the street, even though they aren’t supposed to, of course the storm drain clogs up. Is there any way to fix the sewer so the water goes down?”

Chuck Kanupke, of Estaugh Ave., chastised the current commission, as well as previous administrations, over the $21.7 million stormwater award. “Our home and property are routinely, routinely, flooded out, and we would come to these meetings and tell our stories, and were dismissed as complainers. And the borough didn’t take any of this stormwater stuff seriously until it happened on Concord Dr.,” said Kanupke.

His wife questioned the commission on a stormwater management project that she said had been in the works for years, the Euclid and Lake St. storm sewer improvement project. The commission looked to Siciliano for help, and the solicitor embarked on a lengthy explanation that involved getting four easements from private property owners before the project can proceed. Only one consented voluntarily, Siciliano said, and “the other three, I believe, hired legal representation.” McCullough explained that a new design for the Euclidto-Lake St. project is “going around private lands to public lands,” without elaborating further. The original project would have replaced or rehabilitated the existing storm sewer pipe but was put on hold for several years, according to the borough engineer’s report. Euclid is one of the streets that landed on the borough’s 2024 roads improvement program, from Haddon Ave. to the terminus, along with portions of Westmont Ave., Barberry Lane, West Summit Ave. and Bewley Rd.