West Deptford Might Get Extra Funds for Background Checks

Volunteers who have to pay for their mandatory background checks may be reimbursed by the Kanka Foundation.

Youth organization volunteers who originally had to pay for their own required background checks may have still have a glimmer of hope. The township received an unsolicited email from Maureen Kanka, mother of Megan Kanka and co-founder of the Kanka Foundation, which is providing funding to West Deptford for the background checks. Kanka's email said she may be able to use extra funds to reimburse West Deptford for the criminal background checks the current allotment does not cover. West Deptford only received 100 forms for free background checks. According to recreation director Greg Ley, they are approximately 370 volunteers across all of the organizations. “There's no guarantee,” said Recreation Advisory Committee chairman John DiCarlo at…

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Court Hearing for Scott Kintzing Rescheduled

The former township planning board chairman faces a lewdness charge.

Former township planning board chairman Chairman Scott Kintzing will have to wait a little longer for his day in court.  Kintzing, who is charged with lewdness, was scheduled to appear in municipal court in Maurice River Township, Cumberland County on Tuesday, Jan. 15.  That hearing has been rescheduled to Tuesday, Feb. 5, because the court did not receive all the paperwork in the case in time for the hearing, said Harper Ewing, the municipal court administrator.  The charge against Kintzing was initially transferred to Mantua Municipal Court, but was then moved out of Gloucester County altogether to avoid any potential conflict of interest.  Kintzing was charged in November 2012 with with lewdness for allegedly stripping naked outside a …

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Vignettes

Fields of Glory

As my brother is inducted into the WD Sports Hall of Fame, we all look back at his biggest challenge—his battle with cancer.

I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise, and yet it always does. Time passes. We grow up and grow old. Memory fades. It seems like we’ve barely reached our feet when suddenly we’ve been running for so long, so fast, that we forget to check out the scenery. And we try not to slow down, because we’re so afraid we won’t be able to run that fast again. It’s nice, then, that every once in a while life makes us take a breath. We get a moment to look back in wonder. We enjoy an afternoon of remembering goals set when we were younger, celebrating old triumphs, appreciating the people who shared our race and helped us on our way. That’s the way it was Sunday afternoon at this year’s induction ceremony for the West Deptford High School Athletic Hall…

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Much of West Deptford Left Unscathed By Sandy

West Deptford has suspended emergency operations for Sandy, and the shelter at the high school is closing after minimal damage was found in the township.

While much of New Jersey, especially along the coast, was devastated by the arrival of the powerful nor'easter Sandy, the residents of West Deptford awoke on Tuesday morning to find that, for the most part, they had been spared by the storm. The shelter at West Deptford High School was being packed up by late Tuesday morning, with volunteers and Red Cross officials preparing to leave. On Monday night, the high school gymnasium housed approximately 40 people. The shelter, which had opened on Monday morning around 8 a.m., was able to provide a very safe and secure locale for people who were worried about flooding and other damage in their homes. With the storm dying down by the morning, everyone was fed breakfast and sent home.When it became…

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West Deptford Receives $59,000 Recycling Grant

The state Department of Environmental Protection issued the grant to West Deptford to help further enhance the town's recycling program.

The Department of Environmental Protection will be giving a recycling assistance grant of just over $59,000 to West Deptford for the number of recyclables collected in the township during 2010. The announcement was made by state Senate President Steve Sweeney, Deputy Assembly Speaker John Burzichelli and Assmeblywoman Celeste Riley on Monday. The grants, which totaled nearly $480,000 within New Jersey's Third Legislative District, are incentives to municipalities who collect the most recyclables. The grants are issued based on the total tonnage of recyclables that each municipality reported to the state during 2010. West Deptford received the second-largest grant in Gloucester County. The DEP grants began with the passage of the Recycling …

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Letter: What's Going on With South Jersey Democrats?

In this letter to the editor, the writer says South Jersey Democrats, including those in West Deptford, are on the wrong course.

To the Editor: There was an article in the Gloucester County Times a few weeks ago (September 1, 2012 front page) where Steve Sweeney was quoted by saying we must “punish our enemies” in regard to this upcoming election. Punish? Enemies? Is there a Civil War? I would hope as a leader his thoughts would be “How we can work together?” In this economy, a leader should be striving to work together instead of talk of punishment and enemies. This reminds me of his statement last November when Denice DiCarlo and Hunter Kintzing lost their bid at West Deptford Township Committee and the next day Mr. Sweeney “vowed to work to restore Democrats to power next year.” (WD Patch November 9, 2011) Additionally, in the Gloucester County Times , September …

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Taking On a New Challenge

After nearly two years as West Deptford's editor, I'm moving on to a new assignment.

I’ve always had something of a competitive streak—challenge me to anything, from a game of chess to a half marathon, and I’ll try to find it in me to win. So two years ago, when a former colleague asked me why I was ditching the world of newspapers to jump into a total unknown with Patch and asked me the fateful words, “What are you going to write about in West Deptford?,” I picked that gauntlet off the floor and walked out the door. Two years and more than 2,000 stories later, there’s little question I found a couple topics to cover. But a new challenge has come my way, and that means I’m stepping away as West Deptford’s editor. I’m not going far; I’ll be staying in South Jersey and with Patch—just taking my news reporters’ notepad up …

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West Deptford Pics & Clips

Share photos and videos of your community with your neighbors.

Has West Deptford Patch missed a recent event you wish we had covered, or if we were there, did we miss the perfect photo that you were able to get? Well, now we have a solution. As readers of Patch, you have always had the opportunity to post your photos from an event to our story or photo gallery about the event. But now with the West Deptford Neighborhood Gallery, you also have the chance to upload your photos from around the community that don't fit into a category or story already posted on the site. Just click on the "Upload Photos and Videos" button on the page—and don't forget to tell your neighbors who's in the picture and what's going on in the caption field.

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Rivercove Foreclosed

A federal judge ruled in favor of Grove Street Realty's creditors this week.

Things took a turn for the worse for the moribund Rivercove apartment complex this week, after a federal judge sided with the complex's creditors and sent the property into foreclosure. U.S. District Court Judge Jerome B. Simandle issued a summary judgment Tuesday in Camden against Grove Street Realty Urban Renewal, which owes $34,574,558 to mortgage holder GE Business Financial Services (GEBFS)–more than $2 million more than the original loan amount from 2007. The foreclosure follows a series of complex legal moves in the past several months, all aimed at collecting the balance of the loan. The original foreclosure filing came 17 months ago, in May 2010, but was put on hold after Grove Street filed for bankruptcy not long after. That didn…

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Water Department Flushing Mains to Banish Rust

The effort to clear rust from West Deptford's water system will continue for the next several nights.

With rust still lingering in the township's water system after last weekend's low water levels in two of the water tanks, West Deptford officials have taken the step of flushing water mains on the north end of town–a process that will continue over the next several nights. The step was something public works manager Ed Phelps said was an option if the rust didn't settle out, and was the recommendation of the state Department of Environmental Protection as a remedy for the continuing problem. There may be occasional rusty or discolored water during the flushing process, caused by the speed of the water in the mains and increased chlorine levels. If you have any questions or concerns, officials recommend contacting the water department at …

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