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