The property is valued at $6.5 to $8 million. So, the reduction above to $12.2 million is hardly a bargain. A separate $15.1 million appraisal assumed a use of the property that is not legally permitted, so it was clearly 'made-to-order' and can be discounted. In terms of the current proposal being a "third" of the price of a previous proposal, the current proposal is only phase 1. Future development of the property will cause the overall costs to make up much of the difference.

I should add that the $3.5 million and approximately $600,000 reductions have long been anticipated. No surprises there. The $3.5 million is taxpayer money, so taxpayers at various levels of our State are footing that bill. The $600,000 is private turf-it money for the high school field, which has been removed from the Bancroft bond, but the balance of which will come from other public funds. What residents really need to ask is how much open space are we getting for $3.5 million? Why does the bond still contain $1.2 million (often previously reported as just $1 million) for turf at Bancroft, when the Board said last night it’s uncertain whether it will put turf there? And was it really necessary to put in the bond language that 10 affordable housing units will go at the Bancroft property?

For me last night's meeting was interesting. Most interesting was that woman in the audience who stood up with a district document that showed 30,000,000 million in work the board is planning at the schools. The board member running the meeting looked like deer caught in the headlights. Acted like he'd never seen the document before and then tried to talk his way out of it. He said it was for things like updating a/c. Afterwards I looked at a copy of the document plan (June 2012) and it showed things like architectural drawings for ripping out the front lawn @ Tatem and putting in an asphalt area for parents to drop off their kids. Someone at the meeting said that everyone needs to know about those 30,000,000 costs ahead of time if we're voting on another 16,000,000 in January. A million here, ten million there, I suppose. How big is the pile going to get for Haddonfield folk who already pay 31,000,000 EVERY YEAR for the schools?

The 30 million dollar document for a new high school isn't much of a surprise as it's been talked about as being the final piece of the campus. There was a young woman at last night's meeting who was pro referendum talking about money raised from bringing in tuition students to the new school.
Steve Weinstein has always talked about Haddonfield having a start of the art campus That's always been the final vision for the Bancroft purchase.
My questions to Mr. Weinstein were about Anniversary field turf, the storms and the fallen trees last month that would have destroyed it and the cost of covering the fields during uses like graduations.
I was told special flooring would be purchased but the cost to the taxpayer wasn't elaborated on. I never got an answer on the Anniversary issue. Mr. Weinstein was unable to answer that question. As the commissioners told me to ask Mr. Weinstein concerning the same issue, looks like I got the runaround.

The Haddonfield Civic Association's new President, Dave Siedell, posted this on Haddonfieldtalks.com, where you can comment and discuss this as well. You can watch the entire video unedited and draw your own conclusions. Please consider joining the HCA as a contributing member as those who do make this ongoing community video service of public meetings possible:

At tonight's special meeting of the BOE covered the Bancroft referendum. As it was announced tonight the amount of the bond request will be approx 12.5 million, down from the 16.8 that was tentatively discussed during the summer presentations. Major reasons for the reductions are realized grants from the county, state and local government for open space, the successful raising of citizen funds for one of the turf fields in the proposal as well as better estimates of costs from state mandated due diligence of the acquisition.

The video of tonight's meeting and links to all documents discussed tonight are available on the Civic Association's website:
http://haddonfieldcivic.com/hca/2012/11/27/board-of-education-special-bancroft-meeting-november-27-2012/

Please take the time to educate yourself on this issue. The bond goes for a vote in January and could have financial implications for years and affect the Borough for generations. Judge for yourself the positives and negatives. This topic will heat up as the air cools down toward winter!

I think this purchase is a great opportunity for the Haddonfield community. I am fully supportive.

Please disregard the tile photo, this was an accident. I am asking for it to be taken down. My apologies, I was trying to get a closer look at the plans. Oops...

I don't share the BOE President's vision. I don't have the stomach or wallet to fund anything that is STATE OF THE ART, especially when the public sector will be responsible for managing it. Look at the PUBLIC WORKS yard and their STATE OF THE ART $2 million building. It is a disgrace and is not used for it's intended purpose, to store large vehicles. Now a 100' wide POLE BARN is being built. WHEN WILL THE SPENDING STOP? MAINTAIN WHAT WE HAVE AND SAVE ME THE THIN JUSTIFICATION AND DREAMING WITH TAXPAYER MONEY!

I think the picture he is referring to is the one at the top of this page with the aerial view of Bancroft. It's not the official picture put in recent months by the BoE. The BoE picture includes all the captions describing where they may put buildings, affordable housing, etc. I've seen a group of supporters of the bond circulating the other photo above on their websites. The photo above is misleading because it purports to show a quantity of green space that the BoE has in no way committed to.

OK....Jack S. Bill, Tori, Brian....somebody....some answers, please: I was only able to stay at the meeting for about an hour and when I left they were still droning on. In today's Courier Post, and article said "....the cost of the project that would turn the Bancroft property into a STADIUM COMPLEX for the district." What?!! When was this decided? And what exactly is Tori referring to about the 30 million for A/C and a drop off area at Tatem. What's down the road....another bond? I know that people with kids are all gung ho about this, but when does it end? Info, Please!

MaryAnn, I can't speak to the "stadium complex." Clearly a substantial portion of the property will be developed at taxpayer expense in future phases for turf, school buildings, and/or other construction. Indeed, the initial $16 million in bond and grant funding is just for phase 1. As to the separate $30 million, it was included in a Board report that a local resident disclosed at the meeting which apparently details the Board's 5-year plan for capital expenditures at the existing schools. The Board in response characterized the document as a "standard" report submitted to the State yearly. I can't speak to whether the report is truly standard, but at a time when the Board is also considering a multi-million dollar non-standard expenditure (i.e., for Bancroft), what might otherwise be a "standard" report reveals a level of spending that in the aggregate is more than what many residents may want to bear in the coming years.