Borough Welcomes New Officers, Firefighter/EMT

Collingswood welcomed two new probationary full-time police officers and one new probationary full-time firefighter/EMT at its April meeting on Monday night.

Timothy Tredanari joined the Collingswood Fire Department, while Kenneth Jacoby and Samuel Rocco took their oaths of service to the Collingswood Police.

It was standing room only at the Collingswood Community Center second-floor meeting room, as uniformed firefighters and policemen lined the rear and side walls, applauding their new brothers in arms.

“It’s not just getting the job," Mayor James Maley remarked to the crowd after the ceremonies had concluded. "For all of them it’s something they’ve been wanting to do since they were little kids. So welcome aboard; we congratulate you.”

Rocco, whose brother is a Mt. Laurel police officer, agreed that being a police office is the job that he's wanted "for as long as I can remember."

The year in which he's served as a Special Officer, Rocco said, has prepared him to move into a role as a full-timer.

"I know the town, the systems, the people," he said. "Can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be."

Jacoby was equally enthusiastic about assuming office.

"I'm excited," he said. "I've been waiting for this for a long time," having served four years as a Class I Special Officer and another three as a Class II.

Jacoby, who was born in Collingswood and spent a portion of his youth in town, said he's "always loved the borough and the people in it.

"It was always Collingswood that I wanted to come back to," Jacoby said. "This was always the job."

Tredanari has been involved in the Collingswood Fire Department since joining the Explorer program as a teenager. He is one of a handful of borough residents to have risen through the ranks of the department in that fashion, said Chief Keith Davis.