Wednesday, May 22, 2013
James Maley will serve another four years as the mayor of Collingswood. Joan Leonard and Michael Hall will also oversee the same responsibilities they did previously.
Anyone going into the reorgnization meeting of the Collingswood borough commissioners expecting drastic changes to the leadership structure of "Team Collingswood," which swept the field in the municipal elections a week ago, would have been disappointed. Commissioners James Maley, Joan Leonard and Michael Hall retained their respective assignments—as Commissioner of Public Affairs and Public Safety; Commissioner of Public Works, Parks and Public Property; and Commissioner of Revenue and Finance—with Maley staying on for another four-year term as borough mayor. After the meeting, Maley declined to comment as to whether he felt any changes should have been expected; Hall was more plain-spoken. "Jim’s a great mayor," Hall said. "He’s done …
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
'We've been through the worst that any town can go through, and yet we're still here,' Collingswood Mayor James Maley told supporters on election night.
It was a long road to Tuesday's night's victory in the borough commissioner's election for Collingswood Mayor James Maley and his incumbent running mates, Joan Leonard and Mike Hall. “We've really sold the Edsel this time, because these last four years can't get harder,” Collingswood Mayor James Maley told supporters Tuesday night, referring to the economic recession that plagued the nation, and affected the borough's bond rating in 2011. “We've been through the worst that any town can go through, and yet we're still here,” he said. The incumbents in the borough commission race ran as "Team Collingswood." At their campaign headquarters, a vacant storefront along Haddon Avenue, a mix of friends, family, borough employees and passersby …
Thursday, April 18, 2013
The borough town forum packed in a ton of answers from local leaders Wednesday night. Here's a recap.
Did you miss the borough town forum Wednesday night? (For the first time, the event was streamed live.) If so, here's your recap of some of the top questions from the night. Did the borough get the best deal it could in the recent labor negotiations with emergency personnel? “[On] contracts, do we do the best we can for taxpayers? I feel silly saying this, but of course we do,” Collingswood Mayor James Maley said. Prior to settling its labor negotiations with the fire and law enforcement officials, the borough had held off hiring additional firemen and policemen, Maley said, also pointing out that the new contracts feature “a 15 percent rollback on salaries” and “givebacks on allowances.” “There’s substantial savings that’s allowing us to…
Thursday, March 28, 2013
The drawing for ballot positioning in the borough commissioners race was held Thursday morning.
The three challengers in the race for the Collingswood borough commission will occupy the top three positions on the ballot in the May 14 election. Newcomer Hugh McGuire won the top spot in a random drawing held Thursday morning at Borough Hall. He will be followed by the other two challengers, Ian Wachstein and James Woods. "Team Collingswood," the ticket name adopted by incumbents James Maley, Mike Hall and Joan Leonard, drew the number four position and will fill the bottom three spots on the ticket. The ballot will look like this: 1 - Hugh McGuire 2 - Ian Wachstein 3 - James Woods 4 - James Maley 5 - Mike Hall 6 - Joan Leonard For complete coverage of the 2013 borough commissioners race, visit our election guide.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Who's running in Collingswood? Where do I vote? When is the election? We've got you covered.
It's election season again in Collingswood. Although the borough just chose its new Board of Education members at the normal polls in November 2012, the four-year terms on borough commissioners expire this spring. With that in mind, here's your fast, fun primer on the upcoming referendum. Collingswood is one of those New Jersey communities in which municipal government is organized into a non-partisan, three-member commission under the Walsh Act. Each of the commissioners has specific responsibilities that are determined after the election at an internal re-organization meeting. They are: The vote will take place Tuesday, May 14. Election hours are 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at your normal borough polling place. Not sure where to vote? Click here to…
Thursday, March 21, 2013
The 27-year Collingswood resident says civic leaders 'have to love' the work that they do 'because the things we're doing are not easy.'
A native of Queens, New York, occupational therapist Joan Leonard and her husband Tom moved from Philadelphia to Collingswood in 1986. They have raised three children in the borough, where Leonard has served as an elected official since 1997. When Joan Leonard and her husband, Tom, decided to trade in their Broad Street brownstone for a New Jersey ZIP code, the one stipulation they made was that they had to find a property along the PATCO Hi-Speedline. "We wanted to do a historic restoration in a great town and find the worst house on the block so we could afford it," Joan Leonard said. They settled on a building constructed in 1903 that formerly housed a pharmacy. It was "completely boarded up, with the inside and outside completely …
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
The architectural firm paid $800K for the property and will enjoy a 10-year PILOT agreement with the borough, while still allowing use of its parking lot during off-hours.
Fifteen years ago, Collingswood borough commissioner Joan Leonard said, the “Old” Zane School on Haddon Avenue was a rotten dump with a caved-in roof that doubled as a pigeon roost. “The building was literally falling down,” Leonard told the public at Monday’s commissioners meeting. “It was frightening.” Leonard, who lives across the street from the property, speaks of what she knows. Such a historic building (it dates back to 1905) deserved a better fate. So Leonard was among those most excited when the borough announced that it had come to terms with the current tenants of the building, the architectural firm Kitchen & Associates, to sell the property she'd helped restore 15 years ago. In addition to the $800,000 asking price, Kitchen & …
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
A trio of residents complained to the borough government that the loud and inconsiderate behavior of Bistro Di Marino guests is disrupting their lives.
On an evening that had focused largely on the approval of such items as tax overpayment refunds and procedural issues related to expanding shared-services arrangements, the final moments of the Collingswood Borough Commissioners meeting heated up Monday when a trio of Gorman Avenue residents voiced their displeasure with conditions on the block. Robert Carlson, 47, an IT director; Gerald Kulpa, 60, a disabled retiree; and William Hummel, 57, a professional tennis coach, all said their problems stem largely from the meteoric success of Bistro Di Marino and the convivial attitude of its patrons. “The reason we’re here is a two-pronged complaint,” Carlson said. “The noise that emanates from Bistro Di Marino, and also the parking situation on…
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
The governing body of Collingswood pushed through a number of resolutions in a short meeting Tuesday night.
At what was likely one of their shortest meetings in recent memory, the Collingswood Borough Commissioners nonetheless hammered out a fair bit of business Tuesday evening, most of it relating to its new shared-services initiative, announced earlier in the day at a press conference in Haddonfield. Touting the benefits of economies of scale while warning against the stick-and-stick diplomacy expectedly forthcoming from the New Jersey Legislature this fall, the commissioners formally resolved that Collingswood would join Audubon, Haddonfield, Haddon Heights, Haddon Township, Mt. Ephraim and Oaklyn in an “Interlocal Service Agreement.” The first collaboration under the arrangement will see Collingswood share electrical, plumbing and fire sub …
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Warner Landscape and Patio teamed with the borough to replant Christmas trees in Knight Park.
The Knight Park received a belated Christmas gift on Friday, putting a little extra "green" in the typical red-and-green holiday theme. Warner Landscape and Patio teamed with Collingswood Borough Commissioner Joan Leonard, instituting a new project to recycle Christmas trees. "This idea was brought up between myself and Joan Leonard, in trying to repopulate (trees) in The Knight Park," said Andrew Warner, owner of Warner Landscape and Patio. "We thought, if people came to Warner to buy a Christmas tree, we could work out a package deal." Last month, before Christmas, Warner gave customers the option to buy a tree for $109.99. "The price included a Christmas tree, free delivery to their house, and free pickup after Christmas," said Warner. …
39.91675
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Warner Landscape & Patio
641 Haddon Ave, Collingswood, NJ
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1226669
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39.919338
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The Knight Park
713 Atlantic Ave, Collingswood, NJ
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8:42 pm on Sunday, May 19, 2013
Oh please, MJT, Joe has repeatedly uses facts. Talk about making it personal, sometimes I don't agree with every single thing Joe says, but compare that with the way that Maley attacks people who don't agree with him. Are you even aware of how the residents of Mt. Holly consider Maley? Are you even aware of the threats and intimidation that were used against people by "Team" Collingswood? It's a … more ›