LeBron James 76ers jerseys have arrived at Dick’s Sporting Goods across the Philadelphia area, and, despite some reports, officials at the store contend that they’re flying off the shelves — legally.
On Tuesday, Crossing Broad reported that James jerseys were being kept behind the counter at the Dick’s Sporting Goods location in Cherry Hill “because the store was having trouble with people stealing them.”
A store manager who chose to remain anonymous at the Dick’s location in Cherry Hill said the jerseys — there were only a few left — were placed behind the counter to boost sales, not because the store was experiencing thefts.
A representative from Dick’s corporate offices located in Coraopolis, Pa., confirmed that no jerseys were reported stolen, but that they were kept behind the checkout initially and are in the process of being moved to the floor.
Multiple locations of Dick’s Sporting Goods across the region noted that they have had no series issues of theft surrounding the arrival of LeBron James’ jersey now in stores. David Paul Morris
At the Dick’s location in the King of Prussia Mall, another store manager, who also chose to remain anonymous, said the James jerseys at their location are being kept on the floor and not behind the counter.
Online, Dick’s has shirts available, but only one jersey in stock, the Nike Adult 2024-25 City Edition Philadelphia 76ers LeBron James Swingman Jersey in medium, on preorder for $125.
Other outfitters like Fanatics, the NBA Store, and the Sixers Shop have James’ jersey available to be reserved in royal blue in select sizes. They’ll be shipped in September.
There are also some jerseys available by reservation in red. Both jerseys are selling for $79.99.
Mark Tatulli doesn’t know what made this year different from the last 12 times the National Cartoonists Society nominated him for one of the highest honors in his field.
But something did, since the creator of long-running comic strips Liō and Heart of the City finally won the biggest award of the annual celebration.
He had not expected his name to be called this time around, so the Gloucester County resident and Willingboro native didn’t bring his reading glasses for his acceptance speech. While it was an honor to have been nominated so many times, Tatulli said, he felt relieved to finally be off the docket.
“I’m looking forward to not being nominated this year and drifting back into the shadows,” Tatulli, 63, said.
The National Cartoonists Society gathered on Aug. 7 in Columbus, Ohio, for the 80th Anniversary Reuben Awards, named after cartoonist and Pulitzer Prize winner Reuben “Rube” Goldberg.
The Reuben Award has gone to the most outstanding cartoonist of the year since 1954 (and has been retroactively awarded to those who won the award under its original name, the Billy DeBeck Memorial Award, from 1946 on) chosen by a secret ballot of NCS members. The late Pogo creator Walt Kelly, a Philly native, was one of the first.
This year, there were seven nominees, including Dave Blazek, a Philly resident and creator of comic strip Loose Parts, and Dav Pilkey, creator of Dog Man and Captain Underpants.
Tatulli won the honor on his 13th consecutive nomination, joining the likes of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz and Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes.
“I don’t even include myself in this group,” Tatulli said. “I’m a byproduct of what they already achieved.”
His wife, Donna Tatulli, and fellow members of the NCS Philadelphia chapter were present to celebrate the win. When Tatulli shouted out his home chapter, an attendee responded with a familiar “Go Birds!,” said Jamar Nicholas, a member of the NCS board of directors and chair of the Philly chapter.
Mark Tatulli, 63, of Pitman, poses front and center with his Reuben Award for 2025 Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, which the National Cartoonists Society awarded him at a ceremony in Columbus, Ohio, on Aug. 7, 2026. He stands with his fellow members of the NCS Philadelphia Chapter.National Cartoonists Society, Philadelphia
Nicholas, author of the graphic novel series Leon the Extraordinary, said he believes Tatulli is the first NCS Philly member to win the Reuben since the chapter was formed in 2014.
“Even though this is his accomplishment, we all win,” Nicholas said.
Blazek, who has seven nominations of his own, won the Divisional Silver Reuben Award in the newspaper panel category.
Tatulli, a Willingboro High School alumnus, was 26 years old when his first comic strip debuted in the Burlington County Times. Mr. Fipps told the story of a new teacher and his experiences with junior high school students.
While Tatulli said he cannot speak for everyone, South Jersey was a good place to grow up drawing comics.
“You can literally write comics from everywhere,” Tatulli said. “My experiences in South Jersey predominantly feature in all of my comics.”
Since Mr. Fipps, Tatulli has won three Emmy Awards, become an internationally syndicated cartoonist (including features in The Inquirer), created a graphic memoir, written and illustrated several middle-grade books, and had two of his longtime comic strips explode in popularity.
Liō, a pantomime comic that shares the adventures of a young boy who treats the monstrous as everyday happenings, recently hit its 20th year running in newspapers, and Tatulli does not plan to end it until he stops having fun.
Mark Tatulli, 63, of Pitman, poses with his Reuben Award for 2025 Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, which the National Cartoonists Society awarded him at a ceremony in Columbus, Ohio, on Aug. 7, 2026.Mark Tatulli
“If I’m not totally excited about what I’m doing, the readers will know,” he said.
Tatulli launched Heart of the City, a strip about a girl named Heart living in Philadelphia, in 1998. Six years ago, Tatulli passed the Heart baton to fellow cartoonist Steenz, who has kept the comic going since.
As for what comes next for Tatulli, he said he hopes to one day create a long-form version of Liō and keep writing middle-grade graphic and illustrated novels. He will continue to spend time with family, a benefit of moving to Pitman a year and a half ago from Washington Township. The Reuben Award — a bronze, abstract statuette designed by Goldberg — will live either on the mantle over his fireplace or down in his office, depending on where his wife wants it.
“I’m going to keep drawing until I drop,” Tatulli said.
More than two years after Danielle Lopez disappeared in the Pine Barrens while camping with her boyfriend, her mother continues to search with the hope that she’s still alive.
Plus, an athletic director of a Mercer County school district was caught on a surveillance camera lurking outside the bedroom window of his neighbor’s underage daughter, Avalon is allowing a popular bar to have one more hour of outdoor live music, and more news of the day.
Sue Quackenbush has been looking for answers ever since her daughter, Danielle Lopez, went missing in the Pine Barrens in April 2024.
“This isn’t grief yet. This is terror,” she said during a visit there earlier this year.
At the time of her disappearance, the 37-year-old woman was staying with her boyfriend at a campground in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest.
She was last seen walking alone on Lost Lane, an empty road deep in the forest.
More than two years later, the New Jersey State Police are still investigating and Quackenbush is offering $25,000 to anyone with information that could solve the case.
A Pine Hill woman was arrested and charged with multiple offenses, including second-degree death by auto and driving under the influence, after she crashed into an e-bike on Saturday, killing the rider, a 46-year-old Lindenwold woman, officials announced Monday.
The athletic director of a Mercer County school district has been charged with prowling outside the bedroom window of his neighbor’s underage daughter in Bucks County after he was caught on a surveillance camera, according to local authorities.
The McKernan Supportive Housing Center, a $22 million project that will provide 60 units of supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness, is set to open later this year in Gloucester Township, 42 Freeway reports.
Avalon voted to loosen its liquor license restrictions and allow the new bar Gully’s to have one more hour of outdoor live music until 9 p.m.
More than 1.1 million New Jersey residents are expected to receive letters from the state about their eligibility for the Affordable New Jersey Communities for Homeowners and Renters property tax relief program, aka ANCHOR. WHYY shares what you need to know to get your rebate payment.
Residents in Cherry Hill, Haddon Heights, and Camden should be prepared to alter their routes, as they have the most roadwork projects this week in Camden County.
Pine after pine rolls by on a windy winter day, until the road becomes sand and snakes its way through this wild stretch of New Jersey.
For millions of visitors, these Pine Barrens are a magical, mysterious place, full of folklore. For Sue Quackenbush, the pines feel ominous, a place to fear ever since her daughter, Danielle Lopez, disappeared there in April 2024.
“This isn’t grief, yet. This is terror,” Quackenbush said on a January afternoon there.
Sue Quackenbush is on Lost Lane Road in Woodland Township on Jan. 12. In April, 2024 her daughter Danielle Lopez disappeared farther up the dirt road while camping with her boyfriend in New Jersey’s Brendan T. Byrne State Forest. She is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to solving the case.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Vanished from camp
Lopez was 37 at the time of her disappearanceand staying with a boyfriend, James Scott Dunn, at a campground in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, about 16 miles north of Lost Lane, in April 2024.
Just after 9 a.m. on April 13, 2024, Lopez was captured on surveillance buying coffee at a Burlington County Wawa, not far from the campground.
Later on April 13, around 6 p.m., witnesses saw her walking alone on Lost Lane, a desolate, sandy road pocked with muddy puddles deep in the Pine Barrens.
She was never seen again.
Quackenbush reported Lopez missing 11 days later on April 24. Dunn went to see the police a week later, at Quackenbush’s urging, and was arrested on unrelated drug charges. According to the New Jersey Department of Corrections, Dunn was sentenced to five years in prison on Oct. 25, 2025, on those charges, along with a theft by deception charge. He is currently incarcerated at South Woods State Prison.
Lopez’s car, a 2008 Hyundai Accent, was not discovered until May 1, 2024, disabled and abandoned on Lost Lane, in one of the many muddy holes that dot the road.
Quackenbush, whom the Inquirer has been speaking to since January, said her daughter, known as “D-Lo,” was vivacious and loud. She also had some issues with alcohol, and had sought help for it in the past.
“There’s no denying Danielle had alcohol issues. I’ve never tried to mislead or cover that up. There’s no denying that most people don’t go camping in April … in New Jersey,” she said.
The investigation
The New Jersey State Police are investigating Lopez’s disappearance and have declined to comment to The Inquirer on the case.
In a social media post on the two-year anniversary of her disappearance, police said they were still “seeking the public’s assistance in locating Danielle and gathering any information related to her disappearance.”
In 2024, investigators told NBC’s Dateline that witnesses who saw Lopez walking on Lost Lane that evening on April 13 were filming with a GoPro camera. Based on the footage, investigators told Dateline that Lopez was alone and “did not appear to be in distress” in the video, which has not been released. Lopez allegedly asked those witnesses to help push her car out, but they didn’t.
A family photo of Danielle Lopez, who disappeared in April 2024 while camping with her boyfriend in New Jersey’s Brendan T. Byrne State Forest.Courtesy of Sue Quackenbush
Investigators told Dateline they found “multiple items” belonging to Lopez in her car, but not her phone. Police told Dateline there were no signs of suspicious activity associated with the abandoned car.
In an interview with The Inquirer in prison, Dunn said he and Lopez were “homeless” and living in and out of hotels before moving to the campground, which has a 14-day camping limit.
He discussed a handful of alibis that kept him away from the campground for several days: He said he picked up a motorcycle, visited friends, hotels, and a truck stop. When he returned to the campground after April 13, 2024, he said it was in “disarray.”
“And I was wondering where Danielle was,” he said.
(A New Jersey Department of Corrections spokesman sat in on The Inquirer’s interview with Dunn and recorded it for “recordkeeping.” NJSP investigators later shared the recording with Quackenbush. The NJSP did not return a request for comment on why they shared the interview with Quackenbush.)
A mother’s grief
Quackenbush now brings pepper spray when she drives to Lost Lane from Pennsylvania, and her voice trembles a bit as she gets closer to the desolate road where her daughter was last seen alive. On a January afternoon, a large puddle stopped Quackenbush and The Inquirer from visiting the memorial she erected near the site. The water was too murky, and there was no way to tell how deep it was.
Quackenbush suspects her daughter wanted to see Lake Oswego near Lost Lane when the car got stuck, and believes she could have walked the 16 or so miles back to the Brendan Byrne campground, if she knew the way.
A family photo of Danielle Lopez with her two brothers. She disappeared in April 2024 while camping with her boyfriend in New Jersey’s Brendan T. Byrne State Forest.Courtesy of Sue Quackenbush
Quackenbush holds on to hope, the belief that her daughter is alive, because she suffered so deeply in the past.
“More than most,” she said.
Quackenbush lost her eldest son, Eric, to suicide in 2015. Her younger son, Michael, a Marine who served in Afghanistan, died in a Florida car crash in 2016.
Lopez struggled with loss as well, Quackenbush said, including the deaths of her grandfather in May 2020 and her father a month later. Roscoe, Lopez’s beloved rescue dog, had to be euthanized a few months before her disappearance.
A reward poster on a parking lot restroom on Lost Lane Road in Woodland Township. In April, 2024 Sue Quackenbush’s daughter Danielle Lopez disappeared farther up the dirt road while camping with her boyfriend in New Jersey’s Brendan T. Byrne State Forest.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Quackenbush is offering a $25,000 reward to anyone with information that could solve the case. In January, she said many tips have come in as a result. She’s also been on podcasts and is an administrator of a Facebook group dedicated to the case that has over 1,500 followers.
“Danielle, no day shall erase you from the memory of time,” she wrote on Facebook on the second anniversary of her disappearance.
Sue Quackenbush holds a collage of photos of her daughter Danielle Lopez.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
In January, Quackenbush cried during her visit to the Pine Barrens as she clutched photos of her daughter and sons. The memorial for Lopez was still a 20-minute walk beyond the puddle, on Lost Lane.
“It’s my goal to get the name of this road changed,” she said.
Sue Quackenbush holds a photo she took last summer of the memorial she created for her daughter.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Anyone with information is urged to contact the New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit at (609) 882-2000 ext. 2554 or email missingpinformation@njsp.gov.
All publicity is good publicity, the adage goes, but the Penrose Hotel had a rough reputation before closing its doors in March 2020.
Online reviews paint a vivid picture of the establishment to the north of FDR Park before its post-pandemic renovation and rebrands: Bedbugs, fossilized vomit, blood splatters, gang tags, and mold encompassed with the aroma of urine, cigarettes, and weed.
“At least I wasn’t alone through this and the bedbugs keep me company,” a Yelp review from 2018 says. ”I guess you can say I am survivor but I wouldn’t recommend this to the faint of heart.”
The Justice Department accuses a New Jersey-based father-son duo, Pankaj Sheth and Rajan Sheth, among other family members, of using chronically understaffed and underfunded hotels in a state of gross disrepair, and a revolving door of business entities, to fraudulently obtain government-secured loans.
The sprawling 332-page, 133-count federal complaint, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, names as defendants seven members of the Sheth family, 21 business entities, and eight of the family’s business associates.
It asks a federal judge to order the defendants to return “all funds paid by the United States by which the defendants were unjustly enriched.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Rajan Sheth, the son, denied the Justice Department’s claims against him, his family, and their businesses.
“The business we’re in is buying distressed properties and we turn them around,” Sheth said. “There is no scheme here.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has been investigating the operation for more than two years, Rajan Sheth said, and the family complied with requests for documents. “Every penny” the family borrowed was paid back and they continue to operate and invest in the hotels, he said.
The family intends to fight the allegations and file a countersuit, Rajan Sheth said.
Repeated cycle
The lawsuit alleges the Sheth family and its associates obtained government-backed loans they were not eligible for because of their financial history — past defaults, bankruptcies, fraud judgments, and overwhelming debt — by transferring the ownership of over a dozen hotels in the Mid-Atlantic to straw companies.
These companies, typically limited-liability corporations, would lie to obtain a loan for a property, the suit says. The funds would go to pay old loans and enrich the Sheth family, according to the complaint, while defaulting on the new loan. The Sheths would then use delay tactics in court to prevent foreclosure until another straw company obtained a new fraudulent loan.
“The Sheths repeated this cycle many times,” the complaint says.
The family owned the hotel on Penrose Avenue since 1999, according to the complaint, and defaulted on the loan it obtained to purchase the property shortly thereafter.
The hotel has changed names multiple times in the years since, from Skyview Plaza to Penrose, Radisson, and most recently Holiday Inn Philadelphia Airport-Stadium Area. During that time, the Sheths transferred ownership and created new shell businesses that claimed to run the operations of the hotel. That was to prevent banks and the federal government from knowing about past defaults, according to the suit.
For example, in 2018, the family used a company called Penn Hospitality Management LLC to take a $5 million loan from the Small Business Administration and a $3.1 million loan from a commercial lender. The Sheths pocketed $1.8 million, the suit says, which was intended to renovate the hotel before rebranding as the Radisson.
The hotel defaulted on the 2018 loan at the end of 2020, the suit says, and the Sheths used a new straw company, 2015 Hospitality Management LLC to secure a fresh $12 million loan, which allowed them to keep control of the property.
The family also took advantage of federal COVID-19 recovery efforts, such as the CARES Act business loans and Payment Protection Program.
All told, the Sheths used the Penrose property as collateral to obtain loans worth more than $45 million, the suit says, and like at other hotels, nearly every new, larger loan was used to back pay the previous default. In other words, according to the government, a Ponzi scheme of $100 million across the various properties.
The federal complaint focuses on Penrose in the period between 2016 to 2022 but Philadelphia property records show that the hotel is still owned by Vraj Brig PA LLC, one of the business entities named as a defendant.
The meal-kit company HelloFresh said Monday it is closing its Gloucester County distribution center, eliminating nearly 400 jobs, according to a notification made to New Jersey.
In a statement, HelloFresh confirmed the closure, which will occur on Sept. 30. The facility is located in Logan Township, but has a Swedesboro mailing address.
“We are deeply grateful for the contributions of our Swedesboro team members, and we are committed to supporting affected eligible employees through this transition with severance assistance, extended healthcare support, career transition resources, and internal transfer opportunities where available,” a spokesperson for the company said.
A spokesperson for Logan Township could not be reached for comment.
Thomas Fromm, mayor of Swedesboro, said he received a state notification about the closure and called the news “really sad to hear.”
“I’m sure a number of the employees impacted are from our town and surrounding communities and this is devastating news to hear for their families,” Fromm said in an email.
“I spoke to a representative of HelloFresh and asked for a list of Swedesboro residents being let go but he said they couldn’t provide that information,” Fromm said.
HelloFresh is a popular meal-kit business headquartered in Germany. The service peaked in popularity during COVID, but more recently has been reporting declining revenue. Its stock price in Germany peaked well over the U.S. equivalent of $100 in 2021, but more recently has been trading below $5.
The HelloFresh spokesperson said in the Monday statement: “Operational efficiency is central to everything we do at HelloFresh, and we regularly evaluate our fulfillment setup to ensure we operate as effectively as possible. Following a review of our footprint, we have made the decision to close our Swedesboro, New Jersey distribution center on September 30, 2026, and will seamlessly integrate its operations into our broader fulfillment network.”
Over objections from nearby residents, the affluent Cape May County shore town voted to soften liquor license restrictions for the popular new bar Gully’s, allowing one more hour of outdoor music, until 9 p.m.
The vote followed an outcry from the town’s locals, old-timers, and music lovers after the band Three and One was told to stop playing at 8 p.m. July 17, two hours earlier than advertised, after complaints from neighbors and a visit from Avalon police.
The 8 p.m. cutoff for outdoor music was a special condition included in the liquor licenses of Gully’s and other bars in town.
But at its August council meeting last Wednesday, the council adopted new restrictions on Gully’s that gives the bar one more hour for outdoor live music.
Gully’s had been appealing those conditions to the state’s Division of Alcohol Beverage Control before the resolution’s adoption.
Councilman Jamie McDermott downplayed the consequences of extending the music one more hour, and said the noise was “part of living within the two blocks of the commercial business district.”
“It’s a summer disruption,” he said. “We’re talking about eight Saturday nights that are going to go until nine o’clock.
“For me, for a summer town, that’s not Sea Isle, that’s the seashore at its best,” he said.
According to the resolution, Gully’s has retained a sound engineer to help with noise volume from its bands.
“Each band will be given the sound engineer’s phone number so that the engineer can approve the band’s system before it is set up,” the resolution states.
In addition, “bands will be warned that they will be cut off and not paid if they do not keep the volume reasonable.”
The council noted that Gully’s space is mostly outdoors, unlike other bars in town with bigger indoor footprints for music, and that the borough itself has outdoor music until 9 p.m. at its public concerts.
The extension to 9 p.m. was characterized as a temporary solution for the rest of the summer. The issue will be revisited before next summer.
Gully’s has agreed to withdraw its appeal, for now, Nicole Curio, the municipal solicitor, told the council.
The hanging candied bacon served over grits and Gully’s blooming potato at Gully’s on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, in Avalon, NJ.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
The resolution requires Gully’s bands to have smaller sound systems, no 18-inch or larger bass speakers, and to monitor their volume. The restaurant announced the change on its Facebook page.
The resolution also states that concerned neighbors will be given a number to text if they have issues with the volume.
Gully’s has also agreed to reposition the stage so that bands are facing the building rather than the neighborhood, the resolution states.
City Council President Greg “Chet” Johnson said at the meeting that the town needed to ensure that all the new people investing in summer homes had places to go once they arrived in Avalon.
“The town has changed,” Johnson said, addressing residents who had objected to the new regulation. “It’s a more affluent community that’s coming here. You’ve had great appreciation in your property. This is going to continue to grow and boom. People that come down now, they’re not bringing their groceries. They want to go to restaurants. They want entertainment.”
The popularity of Gully’s, in a space where a previous business had not flourished, showed that it was something the town as a whole supported, he said.
Larry Hayes, a neighbor who lives about 500 yards away and has complained about the noise, said he was opposed to the new regulations. Others said Avalon was caving to Gully’s.
Council Vice President Sam Wierman said it was unrealistic for neighbors near Avalon’s commercial district to want “everything shut off” at 8 p.m.
“That’s the reality of living,” he said. “I don’t think 9 p.m. is unreasonable. It’s a middle ground.”
Curio, the solicitor, noted that the resolution did not address other events at Gully’s, like its amplified Monday minnow races, which were also receiving attention from PETA, the animal rights group.
Resident Jody Kyle, meanwhile, noted a noise issue she thought was worse than Gully’s: The noise from the nearby Wawa, which she said went on until midnight or 2 a.m. some nights.
“It’s underaged kids who belong at home,” she told council.
After two weeks at the ICE detention center Delaney Hall in Newark, the owner of Zena’s American Mediterranean Cuisine in Collingswood was granted bond on Friday and released to his family.
Iemad Saifo, an immigrant from Syria, was detained during a routine check-in at the ICE office in Mount Laurel. He came to America in 2002 on a business visa and later sought asylum after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war.
According to ICE, Saifo was arrested because he does not have permanent status and for a 2018 case where he was indicted and found guilty of witness tampering and sentenced to five years’ probation.
Dozens of community members from the Collingswood area wrote 150 letters and signed a petition to urge the court to keep him in South Jersey with his family. Many know him from the restaurant that’s been open since 2011.
Voorhees Township is set to have a new solar field that should expand access to renewable energy and to lower utility bills for New Jersey residents.
The 13.5-acre solar field is part of the state’s Community Solar Energy Program, which allows households who use the state’s four major electricity providers to subscribe to a participating solar facility and receive renewable credits on their bills without having to install solar panels themselves.
Solar panels are expected to cover about half the property that used to be a 35-acre landfill. It’s been largely untouched since it closed in 1972.
When complete, more than half of the energy generated from the project will be dedicated to low- and moderate-income households, according to a township administrator.
Haddon Township police are looking for additional victims and witnesses after they arrested a Camden man on Thursday following an investigation into multiple incidents of sexual misconduct including involving minors.
A 60-year-old man from Sicklerville was arrested in connection to multiple burglaries of residents’ backyard sheds, according to Gloucester Township Police. He is charged with three counts of burglary, two counts of theft, and one count of resisting arrest, among others.
A spring morning at the Rancocas Woods Village of Shops in Mount Laurel.Taylor Allen
The various wood-framed businesses, which include casual eateries, boutiques, vintage shops, and a book store, sit on Creek Road among trees in Mount Laurel. They make up the Rancocas Woods Village of Shopsand it’s always a charming visit.
What does your community look like? What South Jersey memory would you like to share? Submit a photo and/or a brief description for a chance to be featured in the Monday edition of this newsletter.
A former landfill in Voorhees Township will become the home of a new solar field aimed at expanding access to renewable energy and lowering utility bills for New Jersey residents.
Once complete, the 13.5-acre community-scale solar array will join the more than 200 solar projects that make up the state’s Community Solar Energy Program.
Started in 2019, the program allows households served by the state’s four major electricity providers — Public Service Electric & Gas, Jersey Central Power & Light, Atlantic City Electric, and Rockland Electric Co. — to subscribe to a participating solar facility to receive renewable energy credits on their bill without requiring that they install solar panels themselves.
The program also mandates that a majority of the available renewable energy be set aside for low- and moderate-income households, who are less likely to be able to install their own systems, program manager Sawyer Morgan said in an email.
There are now more than 51,000 households subscribed to the community solar program statewide, Morgan said, receiving over $18 million in net savings since the first projects came online in 2021.
Most of the existing community solar projects are at capacity for participating households, he said, but the program anticipates over 100 additional solar projects to be completed and operational before the end of the year.
While New Jersey is currently home to 209 community solar projects with a total capacity of 291 megawatts, Morgan said, an additional 392 projects that are in development or under construction will add 703 megawatts of capacity to the grid.
“These projects are all on rooftops, canopies, landfills, contaminated sites, mining sites, and certain bodies of water as floating solar,” he said, including the solar project in Voorhees.
The 35-acre landfill on Centennial Boulevard ceased operations in 1972, and the property was acquired by the township five years later. In the decades since, the land has remained largely untouched, unable to be developed because of its prior use.
Now, solar panels are expected to cover about half the property, according to development plans approved by the Voorhees Township Planning Board last month. The exact configuration of the panels will be finalized before construction begins, the plans show.
The developer, Voorhees Solar LLC, was not immediately available for comment about the construction schedule, overall cost, and other project details. The company is owned by the Pegasus Cos. Inc., a wireless and broadband service provider based in Bala Cynwyd, according to the application submitted to the township.
“We can’t build a park or redevelop it with homes,” said Stephen Steglik, Voorhees Township administrator. “The only other option was keeping it empty and in its current state.”
At least with the solar project, he said, the township can create savings for residents while also collecting nearly $900,000 in one-time land lease fees.
The project will have the capacity to produce around four megawatts of energy when operating at full power, according to the project plans, enough to power up to 4,000 typical households.
Of the energy is generated by the project, 51% is going to be dedicated to low- and moderate-income households, Steglik said.
“While costs are going higher and higher, at the very least Voorhees Township is trying to take steps to maintain utility costs and at least try to save people a little bit of money,” he said.
Minors are no longer allowed on Cape May’s beaches after 8 p.m. or in other public areas after 10:30 p.m. under a new curfew passed by the Jersey Shore city.
The Cape May City Council on Thursday adopted stricter curfew measures for people under 18 after the city’s police department reported an influx of “disruptive, dangerous, and unlawful” behavior from large groups of minors, according to the city ordinance.
The ordinance went into effect Thursday.
“We have a very tranquil, peaceful community here. We are not against juveniles. We are not saying we don’t want them here. While they’re here, we just want them to be responsible,” Cape May Police Chief Dekon Fashaw said at the meeting.
“Respectfully, we do not want to be their babysitters,” Fashaw said.
Minors will be barred from the city’s beaches, boardwalk, promenade, and other public areas at the set times unless they are accompanied by a parent or guardian, working, or commuting to or from work.
The city also banned backpacks and other large bags on the promenade, beaches, and boardwalk and in other public areas from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. with some exceptions, including medical devices.
Cape May expedited the vote under a state provision that allows local governments to adopt emergency ordinances quickly when they are considered necessary for preserving the public order.
“It’s come to the attention of city administration and the council that the police department really needs these tools now, not in September, not in October,” Christopher Gillin-Schwartz, the city’s solicitor, said.
Fashaw said his department has responded to minors drinking and fighting in public places.
Curfews in other Shore towns have pushed minors down to Cape May, he said, where they were previously allowed to be out until midnight.
