The Hammonton Gazette 11/15/17 Edition | Page 5

PPa Executive Director Rhoads attends Env. Comm. mtg. Page 4 • Wednesday, November 15, 2017 • The Hammonton Gazette PPa, from Page 1 the-ground work” in order to improve the water quality for southern New Jersey resi- dents living in the Delaware River Water- shed, which outlets to the Kirkwood Cohansey Aquifer. Rhoads said phase one of the initiative is dedicated to educating residents about water use and helping to promote a rebate program for water conser- vation, the South Jersey Landscape Makeover Program. Now that the PPA has received a grant, Rhoads said phase two of the initiative will go toward using the makeover program to introduce the public to green infrastructure that can help reduce storm water runoff that carries pollution and in turn improve water quality, such as rain gardens and rain bar- rels. Rhoads said the PPA plans on promot- ing the topic of green infrastructure through working with schools and town-owned properties, as well as hosting rain garden presentations and rain barrel workshops in the future. The plan is to allow residents to set up a free consultation with design professionals from Rutgers University regarding the plan and layout of their rain garden. Once the garden is installed and appropriate photos and documentation are sent in, participants can receive a rebate up to $450. “Rutgers will have engineers on site that will say to the homeowners, ‘OK, after that first presentation, come back with pictures of your property where you think you might want to install such a garden and we will design it for you.’ We will tell you, ‘OK, this is the square footage, this is how much soil, these are the type of plants, how many plants’ and we’ll potentially even be able to build it with the homeowner on the property,” Rhoads said. The program is projected to launch in January 2018 and runs across a two-year period. Rhoads said the PPA will search for addi- tional partnering foundations and organizations throughout the process in order to maintain fund- ing in the event that the PPA ex- hausts its initial resources provided by the NFWF. The town has discussed green in- frastructure projects in the past. Rutgers University approached the town earlier this year and have been working with the town and county on a rain garden at the Hammonton branch of the Atlantic County Library System with fund- ing that is ancillary to the NFWF grant. Commission chairman Daniel Bachalis said the ability to receive even more opportunities to install green infrastructure, especially for residential properties, is a valuable Drug arrests made FiRE, from Page 1 not lose all eight units. The fire de- partment did an excellent job,” Jones said. In other news, police made sev- eral arrests last week, including the following, Jones said. • On November 9 at 5:18 p.m., Thomas Keubler, 38, of Mullica Twp. was arrested along with Catherine McGurk, 49, of Ham- monton on the 800 block of N. Third Street, Jones said. Jones said they were charged with possession of controlled dan- gerous substance cocaine and pos- session of drug paraphernalia. Police responded to a complaint and discovered the drugs and drug paraphernalia, Jones said. Sgt. Donald Kunen was the ar- resting officer, and both subjects were released pending a court date, Jones said. • On November 10 at 11:45 a.m., Randall Johnson, 52, of Philadel- phia was arrested on a warrant from Hammonton for $750 near the police station, Jones said. Cpl. James Pinto was the arrest- ing officer, Jones said. Johnson was transported to the Atlantic County See POLiCE, Page 13 opportunity. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to do more of them [rain gardens]. With this additional funding, we’ll be able to stretch those num- bers of project; that’d be great. And includ- ing residents in the process is just—I hate to make a terrible pun, but it’s groundbreak- ing,” Bachalis