Collingswood Expands Shared Services in 7-Town Agreement

Municipal government in the 2-percent cap world continues to take a page from some of the basic rules of preschool: play nicely, take turns and share, share, share.

Seven Camden County towns—Audubon, Collingswood, Haddonfield, Haddon Heights, Haddon Township, Mount Ephraim and Oaklyn—are working to more closely coordinate their resources under broader .

The neighboring communities will kick things off Tuesday with the formal signing of an agreement to share a construction code official on an emergency basis. Thereafter, each municipal leader will draft interlocal shared-service resolutions to be approved at the monthly meetings of their respective governing bodies.

One of the first areas the group will examine is ways to share construction equipment and public works vehicles, thereby cutting back on capital equipment purchases and maintenance costs.

In a statement issued by , Mayor James Maley said the program "can start to see a significant savings" with additional planning.

“It became clear that many of our needs were overlapping and it made sense to work together to reduce our costs," Maley said.

Many Camden County communities already unofficially share certain services, including those for municipal courts, fire service and .