January 25, 2010 - Cleary's Notebook News

By Bill Cleary

PARKING PERMITS NEEDED-The City of Gloucester City recently approved $\"Tips$ permit parking for the residents of the 200 block of King Street as well as the 200 block of Essex Street due to complaints from the neighbors about the employees from Holts parking in the area. Holt provides three parking lots for its employees. Once the ground thaws the signs will be installed.

A resident from the 200 block of Morris Street writes,

Bill, I have four vehicles and two are usually on King, I’m told because I live on Morris St. I can’t get a permit now. When the \”no show taxpayer sweeper\” comes around where am I supposed to park, four blocks over and take somebody else’s spot. This is just more @#$% from our city government going stupid. As for the \”no show sweeper\” the only thing that it does is take my dirt and move it to my neighbors and so on down the road. What is this town becoming? Soon it will be just like Camden, a rundown scared to be in City, it’s a damn shame.

I contacted Police Chief Berglund, who said, \”I will ask about the other residents because I see where this man is coming from.\”

WOMAN INVOLVED IN MURDER SENTENCED TO 364 DAYS-The third person involved in the 2006 killing of Lisa Hoopes, 43 at a North Burlington Street apartment in Gloucester City was sentenced last week. Camden County Superior Court Judge Samuel Natal sentenced Karen Sluzalis, 44, of Pennsauken to five years probation and 364 days in county jail. Investigators had initially charged Sluzalis with murder, claiming she not only had hit Hoopes with the bottle, but also joined John Creamer and Brian Springer when they punched and kicked the Gloucester City mother of two. Hoopes was ultimately convicted in November of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Assistant Camden County Prosecutor Alfred Durney said Creamer was serving a 40-year sentence for aggravated manslaughter; Springer took a plea agreement and is serving a 12-year sentence. Durney said he was seeking a five-year prison term for Sluzalis and told Natal that she had lied on the witness stand about her drug use and past run-ins with the law.

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GLOUCESTER CITY FIRE DEPT. ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS-The Civil Service Commission sent out a letter on December 22, 2009 announcing the acceptance of applications for the entry-level firefighter test for the Gloucester City Fire Department along with 69 other communities. Besides Gloucester those in the area include: Camden City, Cinnaminson, Deptford, Gloucester Township, and Pennsauken.

The letter reads in part,

TRENTON – Civil Service Commission Chair and Chief Executive Officer Hope L. Cooper today announced that applications for entry-level firefighter positions will be accepted starting January 1, 2010. Applications for the entry-level Firefighter Test will be accepted for 70 municipalities and other local jurisdictions from Jan. 1, 2010 through March 31, 2010.

Eligible applicants will take a written examination tentatively scheduled to be given in June 2010. Candidates who pass the written test will undergo a physical performance test.

• Candidates will be able to fill out their applications on the Civil Service Commission web site at www.statwe.nj.us/csc, and then print the completed forms and mail them in.

• Paper applications will be available at public libraries, the fire departments listed below as part of this announcement, community organizations and the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development Employment Services Offices. Once all parts of the Firefighter Test are completed and scored, certified lists that are ranked by candidate score will be provided to local jurisdictions for them to conduct their hiring process.

In Gloucester City, a community that is 2.2 square miles the estimated budget for the Fire Department is $4 million.

City Councilman Nick Marchese, Finance Chairman said the department has 32 paid firemen, which includes 9 supervisors. Salaries for those full-time employees is approximately $2,565,003.The City has 25 volunteer firemen.

Across the state paid departments are shrinking because of budget constraints. In 2009 Gloucester City mayor and council appointed seven firemen to full-time positions. Only one of those men was new since six of them had the title of provisional firefighter. The City firefighters have been working without a contract since December 2008.

PINE GROVE MEMBERSHIP DWINDLING-The fire engine from the Pine Grove Volunteer Fire Company has been relocated to the Gloucester Heights Fire Company on Nicholson Road said an anonymous Pine Grove member. Pine Grove membership is down to six active members, and 16 associate members. Pine Grove volunteers report to Gloucester Heights when there is a fire. My source tells me Pine Grove recently took out an $85,000 mortgage. \”The City has approached our executive board about purchasing the fire house. We are not going to sell.\”

New Jersey\’s Troubled Trust Fund- The state\’s fund went insolvent in March 2009, but it maintained an unsustainably low tax rate for years before that, entering the current recession with less than three months of reserves. New Jersey business owners face a hefty average tax increase from $569 to $896 per employee for 2010 source http://projects.propublica.org

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