Wenonah police staying on patrol

Wenonah tends to settle its issues in a civil manner, with emotion, perhaps, but little rancor.

So when the Gloucester County borough's council suggested dissolving the police department and contracting services to a larger neighboring town, such as Mantua, Pitman, or Deptford, residents essentially said: "Whoa!" The council assented to a nonbinding ballot question this month.

Given that voice (nonbinding though it was), Wenonah residents voted against the proposal solidly, 551-325. While the council could ignore the vote, members say it is unlikely to do so, and the patrol cars parked along West Avenue near Mantua Boulevard, by the police station, will stay emblazoned with Wenonah.

"I would say there will be no political will to go forward with this now," said Gerald Sinclair, a Democratic council member. "It was a good idea, at least to study it, and I firmly believe it was a good time to be looking at shared services, but it won't happen now."

The leafy town of 850 homes already has several shared-services contracts, which Gov. Christie and other Trenton politicians are encouraging to help towns rein in their budgets. East Greenwich picks up Wenonah's trash, and the county does its tax assessing. Wenonah shares code officials with a half-dozen towns. And it sends students beyond sixth grade to the Gateway Regional School District.

As far as timing, contracting out police would have come not long after the police chief retired on June 1.

Residents may simply have been afraid of the borough losing its identity, said Roger Kearns, 58, owner of Wenonah Cabinetry.

"That is perhaps the case, but at some point people have to realize that costs can become too high and services too inefficient," said Kearns, who attends nearly every council meeting and ran unsuccessfully the last two years as an independent for council.

The town estimates that police services make up about one-third of the $2.5 million annual budget. "If you don't look at the biggest part of your budget to see what you can do about it, you are foolish," Kearns said.

On the opposite side of the issue is Steven Sparks, a retired chemical engineer who led the petition drive to get the question on the ballot. He's satisfied that the proposal was rejected.

"I don't really want to criticize [council members]. They are volunteers and try to do the best job they can," said Sparks, 64. "But before you do something like this, you need a lot of study and a lot of input from the community. I think most people are just more comfortable with their own police department."

Mayor Thomas Lombardo, principal of the Bankbridge Development Center, has lived in Wenonah for 46 of his 47 years. He said he understands the idea that residents are afraid of the one-square-mile town's losing its identity. It started as a 19th-century vacation retreat - where middle-class and wealthy Philadelphians could come to the country for a week. Much of the town is parkland, with a lake as a recreational area in the summer.

Lombardo noted, though, that one preliminary proposal to merge the department with Mantua Township might have saved Wenonah from $150,000 to 250,000 a year for 10 years, not to mention improving police services.

"Right now we don't have a detective bureau, and merging with a bigger town would give us that," Lombardo said. "Not that we have a lot of crime, but there are times when break-ins go up, for instance, and we can't really accommodate looking at them the way we should."

Kearns said he wouldn't give up the fight easily. He hopes the council will continue to explore efficiencies.

"I'll probably run again next year on this; third time's the charm," he said.

Kearns and Sparks say they are short-timers in a town like Wenonah - having been residents for "only" nine and 13 years, respectively. Many families have been residents for two or three generations. They also said they appreciated the borough's civility, even on emotional issues like merging police forces.

"We know we have to get up every day and say 'Good morning' to the people next door," Kearns said, noting that he got several e-mails after the referendum lauding him for his fight. "That's why I live in a town like this. People disagree, but we all want a good place to live."