PRESS RELEASE: Nance, Moore And Scheets Say No To $50 Million Trail

Camden County Republicans running for freeholders, Nicole Nance, Jennifer Moore and Johanna Scheets say the all Democrat County Freeholder Board should be worrying about helping people deal with hardships caused by COVID-19 rather than building a trail system through the county. Their press release on the matter follows:

Camden County Republican candidates for freeholder, Nicole Nance, Jennifer Moore and Johanna Scheets, said today that now is not the time to spend $50 million to build a multi-use trail designed for bicyclists, walkers and joggers through the county.

The final virtual session held by county government for residents to view the plans was held last night.

“Spending $50 million, no matter where the money comes from, during a global pandemic for a trail to ride bikes and walk or jog on is the last thing county government should be considering,” Nicole Nance said. “If the Freeholders are serious about getting grants, perhaps a better idea would be to look for grants to help people recover from this pandemic.”

“Before getting into a discussion of the poor timing of pushing this pet project, I have to wonder if the Freeholder Board listens to any comments they don’t want to hear,” Jennifer Moore commented. “When I served on Haddon Heights Council residents voiced concerns over potential parking issues along Atlantic Avenue, which serves the town’s Station Avenue Business District. Residents were also concerned about potential crime. One need only look at the Pinellas Trail in Florida that led to increases in crime and additional expense to communities that had to install surveillance cameras. This is a bad idea at the wrong time.”

“There was a time Camden County Republicans complained about the $25 million price tag for this pet project. Only two years later and the price tag is $50 million and Freeholder Jeff Nash is on record saying that number could change as plans evolve,” Johanna Scheets said. “Sure, they say they’re going to use grant money. Guess what – grant money comes from tax dollars, maybe not county tax dollars, but we all pay taxes, so we’re still all paying for this project one way or another. It’s not fair to ram something like this through in a county that according to tax-rates.org is ranked 23rd of 3,143 counties across the nation in order of median property taxes. If the Freeholders really want to go after grant money, let’s get grant money to help people through the financial hardships caused by this pandemic, not building a pet project.”