Camden County schedules public budget hearings, advances dozens of contracts and grant applications

The Camden County Board of Commissioners on an unscheduled meeting day introduced two readings of the 2025 county budget and announced public hearings for the budget resolutions to be held April 17, 2025 at the Camden County Courthouse, 520 Market Street, Sixth Floor Meeting Room, Camden, N.J.

The board also advanced a broad slate of routine and project-specific authorizations across departments, including multiple public-works contracts and change orders, several grant applications from the Department of Health and Human Services, and procurement actions for countywide services. Those items were read into the record during the meeting; no final roll-call votes on the individual authorizations were recorded in the public portion of the transcript provided.

Public works items listed for authorization or amendment included: a solicitation for professional engineering services for construction management and inspection on an as-needed basis; an amended agreement with Van Cleef Engineering Associates LLC for additional engineering design services for the Maze Landing roadway improvements in Winslow Township for $10,497.20; a contract award to South State Inc. for the Camden City Phase 1 pedestrian safety and roadway improvements (Federal Street and River Road intersection realignment and related River Road work) for $3,294,474.80; and multiple change orders and finalizations with Charles Maradino LLC and South State Inc. showing both decreases (for Haddon Avenue improvements and Green Tree Road) and increases (for Chu Road and King's Highway work) with amounts read into the record.

The board also read authorizations for a shared-services agreement with Haddon Township for traffic line painting; a Leaf Avenue extension agreement with Big Timber Junction LLC; an amendment with Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) for the Berlin Cross Keys Road widening project in Winslow Township and Pine Hill Borough; and endorsements and permits including a Township of Gloucester speed limits ordinance and an access permit submission to the New Jersey Department of Transportation for Leaf Avenue Extension.

Open-space and farmland preservation items included a $30,000 agreement under the South Jersey Land and Water Trust to coordinate stewards of open space in Camden County, an RFP-based agricultural services agreement with Stella Farms, and a recommendation from the Open Space Advisory Committee to provide funding to the Borough of Gibbsboro for the purchase of the Conners property.

Health and human services items introduced included a ratified shared-services agreement for senior and disabled services with the Camden County Board of Social Services for $376,856, and multiple grant applications to the New Jersey Department of Health and other agencies: a TB Control Specialty Clinic Services grant for $115,271; a sexually transmitted disease grant for $250,000; a Special Child Health Case Management grant for $306,647; a Childhood Lead Exposure Prevention grant for $417,500; a local core capacity public health emergency preparedness grant for $303,301; a Community Mental Health Services grant for $10,000; and a $14,330 grant application to the Division of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health described as the "Right to No" grant in the record.

Other procurement and capital items read into the record included: a software license for the Camden County Office of the Prosecutor with SHI International Corp. for $61,362.87; purchase of three vehicles under a cooperative purchasing program for $187,364.96 (with $65,417.60 in available funding and the remainder from the prosecutor's forfeiture fund); an award for Camden City Hall facade restoration for $1,111,961; cooperative contracts for groundskeeping services; state-contract purchases of software licenses from Dell Marketing LP for $107,522.11 (funding contingent on passage of the 2025 temporary or permanent budgets); fuel purchases from Pedroni Fuel Company (funding contingent on budget passage); a building automation maintenance contract with Siemens Industry Inc. for $51,516 (funding contingent on budget passage); and an order for law books not to exceed $59,000. The board also read a proposed mail-in voter education program grant application for $309,090 to the New Jersey Secretary of State.

In the public portion of the meeting, no members of the public spoke on the listed resolutions when asked; the commissioners then moved to close public discussion and later voted to enter closed session for attorney-client, personnel and other privileged matters.

Why it matters: if adopted, the budget readings and the many procurement and grant actions authorizing spending or applications will shape county road, public-health, open-space and public-safety programs for 2025; several contract awards and purchases noted in the record are explicitly contingent on the passage of the county's 2025 temporary or permanent budgets.

The public hearings on the budget resolutions are scheduled for April 17, 2025 at noon at the Camden County Courthouse, 520 Market Street, Sixth Floor Meeting Room, Camden, N.J., according to the meeting record.