Some Good News...Perhaps; Mt. Eph. School Bd.; Are Ugly Billboards Coming to Gloucester City?
Friday, March 24, 2017
UPDATED
William E. Cleary Sr. | CNBNewsnet
SOME GOOD NEWS...PERHAPS!—We have been hearing a rumor that the Gloucester City School District was trying to come up with an alternative to the before and after program, known as B.E.S.T. The tip we received said the school children were given a letter (see below) today to their parents stating the “YMCA of Camden and Burlington Counties will now be providing our students with a before and after school program.”
We contacted School Superintendent Joseph Rafferty for an explanation this afternoon. Rafferty said, “We are working to have the program continue with the YMCA. Also, so that you have the correct facts, the school district was taken by surprise with no advance notice, at the closing of the EIRC which oversaw the BEST program.”
This past Tuesday we reported that parents who have children enrolled in the before, after or summer program were notified on March 17 by Rafferty that the B.E.S.T. program would end on March 31 at the end of the day. According to Margaret McDonnell, School Administrator the district did not receive any written notice that the program was being dissolved. “The Superintendent learned that the program was ending through a phone message or a county meeting.”
See article: Before and After School Program in Gloucester City Schools etc.
MT. EPHRAIM SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER RESIGNS— Lewis Greenwood Sr., a member of the Mount Ephraim school board resigned last month because he posted lewd and offensive remarks on some Facebook pages.
NJ Advance Media reported that Greenwood Sr., 52, was elected to the board in 2015, the same year he retired as a lieutenant in the Camden County Sheriff's Department.
"Obviously I regret it and I don't want to embarrass my family and the board," Greenwood said.
He said he posted on the pages of people who upset him, including public figures he felt were expressing anti-American or anti-police sentiments. His comments included profanity, homophobic slurs, sexually graphic language, and references to racial stereotypes.
While he said he did not know those posts would be public, Greenwood did say he stands by posts on his own Facebook profile and does not believe they are offensive. They include comments that could be perceived as racist or Islamophobic.
After being contacted about the posts by NJ Advance Media, Mount Ephraim Public Schools Superintendent Leslie Koller and Camden County Sheriff Gilbert "Whip" Wilson condemned the comments.
Greenwood Sr. resigned from the board February 27.
BILLBOARDS COMING TO GLOUCESTER CITY?— We are hearing that the Gloucester City mayor and council are preceding with their plans to erect billboards in the north end of the city. A reliable source said the early plans call for four billboards, two billboards on the Holt Cargo property, one erected in the Gloucester City (South Yard) and one on the Camden City side (North Yard). Plus two billboards in the area of the swim club, Essex and Brown Streets. One on the north side of the club and other on the south side. The source said mayor and council are in need of revenue for the city to keep taxes down thus the reason they are seeking to erect the billboards in the hope of raising some revenue.
This isn’t the first time that billboards have been proposed for that area. The idea was proposed once in the 1980’s and again in the 1990’s. The city government was against the idea back then because the billboards would block the beautiful view of the city from the Walt Whitman Bridge.
In 1996 plaintiff Intervine Outdoor Advertising took the City of Gloucester City and the Gloucester City Zoning Board of Adjustment to court for stopping them from erecting billboards on the Holt Cargo property. According to court documents “An objective of the City's 1985 master plan is eventually to rezone the waterfront area from industrial to mixed-use development and to clean up and beautify the entrances to the City by various techniques, which include prohibiting new billboards and attempting to retire old ones.
According to court documents “An objective of the City's 1985 master plan is eventually to rezone the waterfront area from industrial to mixed-use development and to clean up and beautify the entrances to the City by various techniques, which include prohibiting new billboards and attempting to retire old ones.
The plaintiff, Intervine Outdoor Advertising, lost the case.
We are continuing our investigation.