A proposal for a two-story school for 160 students that Bancroft NeuroHealth plans on its Mount Laurel campus goes before the township planning board next week.
The nonprofit, based in Cherry Hill, would serve children ages 3 to 11 with autism and developmental disabilities in the building, according to documents with the application for preliminary and final major site plan approval.
A public hearing on Bancroft’s proposal is scheduled for the remote-only board meeting on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 6 p.m. via Zoom.
The 55,205-square-foot school at 311 Walton Ave. on Bancroft School’s Welsh Campus would have 188 staff members.
The school is scheduled to open in 2028 on former agricultural land that now is a lawn on the southeast part of the campus, according to the application.
Bancroft’s overall 80-acre Mount Laurel campus was approved by the planning board in 2016. A possible future expansion on the southwest part of the property is mentioned in the documents, but details were not provided.
Arsenic was found in soil on the proposed building site, but a report for Bancroft by Dewberry Engineers Inc., of Parsippany, states it is naturally occurring and not associated with historical agricultural activities or a discharge.
Dewberry reported it found no potentially contaminated areas of concern that required additional investigation.
70and73.com is a hyperlocal news site focused on South Jersey, including the communities of Cherry Hill, Evesham, Mount Laurel, Voorhees, Medford, Medford Lakes, and Moorestown.
Vineland residents who are some of the first in the Philly area to know what it’s like to live next to a massive AI data center share their experiences.
And the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission wants to know where you’re headed every day — and how you get there.
But a handful of local homeowners have the unique experience of seeing one from their houses — the DataOne facility in Vineland.
They used to have more neighbors before the data center developers and associates bought several homes that now appear to be abandoned.
Multiple residents commented on the excessive sound.
“I think of a prison, and I’m the prisoner with the noise,” said a homeowner of more than 47 years. “You get up in the morning and you’re in a foul mood.”
The DVRPC wants to know just about everything about people’s daily travel habits.
No, this is not about surveillance. After 13 years, the commission needs an updated survey to help guide funding decisions for infrastructure projects and transportation plans for the nine counties it serves, which include Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester.
Since January, it has been recruiting participants by mail to randomly selected households. Sorry, you can’t nominate yourself.
Those who opt in will have to track their household trips for 24 hours using a phone app. It’ll also ask the household basics: size, age, income, etc.
But how exactly will the experts use this information?
Five years after Clementon Park & Splash World was purchased at a bankruptcy auction, the recently shuttered 119-year-old amusement and water park is going back to auction this month.
Researchers have found microplastic pollution in every one of the 22 stream and river segments along the Delaware River tested in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New York. This includes Cooper River in Camden County.
Residents in Camden and Cherry Hill should be aware of possible detours and prepare to take alternative routes because of roadway projects scheduled for this week.
The Inquirer’s editorial board, which is separate from the newsroom, wrote that Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s call for now-former Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell to resign set “an ethical example for a corrupt era.”
🗓️ The best things to do this week
🔮 Boos & Brews Witches Market: Check out this witch-themed market full of themed vendors and activities. Stick around for food trucks, a costume contest, performances, and a beer garden. ⏰ Friday, Oct. 2, 5-9 p.m. 💵 Pay as you go 📍 Rancocas Woods Events and Shops, Mount Laurel
📚 Collingswood Book Festival: The 24th annual festival is back spanning six blocks of Haddon Avenue. Come to meet booksellers and stay for author and poetry readings, performances, and workshops. ⏰ Saturday, Oct. 3, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 💵 Free 📍 Haddon Avenue, Collingswood
🎨 Cranberry Fest: The 36th annual cranberry fest returns with live music, a food court, a beer garden, and more than 100 artisans. 💵 Pay as you go 📍 Farnsworth Avenue, Bordentown
In the ubiquity race in South Jersey, Dunkin’ seems to be edging out Wawa. Banks used to be a leading competitor in that race, but with the growth of online banking, they’re disappearing to other development.
A Dunkin’ operator in Mount Laurel is proposing to repurpose a former Wells Fargo Bank at 4523 Church Rd., east of the North Maple Avenue intersection, into one of the chain’s coffee and doughnut restaurants.
Applicant Siya Kinjal LLC is scheduled to appear at an Oct. 7 zoning board of adjustment meeting for a use variance and preliminary and final site plan approval. The bank property is zoned residential.
The Dunkin’ is projected to add 130 in and 120 out vehicle trips in the morning peak hour and 109 in and 114 out in the Saturday peak hour, according to a developer’s traffic study by McDonough & Rea Associates Inc. of Manasquan.
The 2,999-square-foot Dunkin’ would include a drive-through lane. The property abuts single-family homes on Camelot Court and a gas station, according to a report by board engineer Richard A. Alaimo Associates of Mount Holly.
The property would be purchased by the developer from 4523 Church Road Associates LLC of Saw Mile Drive in Mount Laurel, according to the zoning application.
Gulu Puri of Marlton and Ashwin Chaudhary of Pittsgrove filed with the board as owners of Siya Kinjal LLC.
70and73.com is a hyperlocal news site focused on South Jersey, including the communities of Cherry Hill, Evesham, Mount Laurel, Voorhees, Medford, Medford Lakes, and Moorestown.
After more than two decades in the same district, veteran educator Neil Burti is starting a new job: Mount Laurel Schools superintendent.
Burti spent nearly his entire career in nearby Cherry Hill schools, rising from teacher and coach to principal and most recently director of secondary education. His stint included taking over as principal at Cherry Hill East for several months, after a shake-up stemming from a lawsuit alleging a former assistant principal was subjected to discrimination and retaliation by the board and top administrators.
He is beginning a new chapter when the school year begins Wednesday for about 4,500 students as schools chief in Mount Laurel, a pre-K through eighth-grade district in Burlington County.
Burti, 50, succeeds George Rafferty, who retired this summer after leading the district for a decade. He took over Aug. 1 under a three-year contract.
In the first few weeks on the job, Burti said he has focused primarily on meeting as many stakeholders as possible — mostly staff — and getting ready to welcome students.
For his first year, Burti, who lives in neighboring Marlton with his wife, Jessy — his college sweetheart — and their four children, plans to visit every school to meet with more students and teachers and embark on a tour “to listen, learn, and lead.”
We talked to Burti about his decision to leave Cherry Hill, his priorities for Mount Laurel, the financial challenges facing all districts amid declining state aid, and the kind of superintendent he wants to become.
Thisinterview has been edited for length and clarity.
Why was this the right time to leave Cherry Hill?
Cherry Hill provided me tremendous opportunities as a young teacher, a young administrator, and then as a seasoned veteran. Twenty-four years is a long time.
I also recognize that change is healthy. I was at a point in my career where I was looking for some type of change, some type of new challenge, I wasn’t actively seeking a job, but when this opportunity presented itself, I knew this would be a dream position. The reality is that Mount Laurel is a destination district.
It became obvious to me that this was the right opportunity, the right choice, and Mount Laurel was the right place. I’ll always miss the connection to so many former students, families, faculty, and staff.
What did your special assignment at Cherry Hill East as principal teach you that you will bring to the superintendent’s job?
I felt privileged to be able to serve as principal at Cherry Hill High School East on special assignment.
What it reinforced for me is exactly what I already know about this business: There are things that are predictable, and there are things that are unpredictable.
As leaders, we have to be ready to handle both. Whether it’s something you see coming and can prepare for or something you’re dealing with reactively, you have to be ready. You have to be confident and competent enough to address both the predictable and the unpredictable.
What are your priorities for the first year?
My goal is to listen, learn, and lead, and I feel like I need to do it in that order.
That listening and learning will ultimately guide me as I move into the leading phase of my plan. It will have everything to do with stakeholder input and the data I collect during year one as we determine together the vision for the district.
The district is focused on academic achievement, partnering with families and the notion of belonging. That’s critical to me because we know in education, there’s a big difference between fitting in and belonging.
There are also clear goals around pre-K expansion, early literacy, and algebra readiness.
New Jersey school districts are struggling to operate with reduced state aid. What are Mount Laurel’s biggest budget challenges?
The challenges in Mount Laurel are no different than the challenges in other districts in Burlington County, across the state, and really across the country.
Those challenges have everything to do with an inadequate funding formula, the rising cost of health and energy, and a national teacher shortage.
With the uncertainty of the state budget, there’s no way to predict what will happen financially if the state funding formula doesn’t adequately fund districts. At this point, I’m not aware of staffing reductions, program cuts, or larger class sizes on the horizon here in Mount Laurel. We expect to be fully staffed for all certificated positions.
A year from now, what will tell you that your first year was successful?
The great thing about Mount Laurel is that substantive work has already been done. I view my role as building on that past success while keeping an eye on future improvement.
When you’re starting the role, you’re not necessarily beginning with your legacy in mind. It will really be about long-range planning for the district.
At the end of my first year, I want to be able to say that we have looked deeply at Mount Laurel, not just in terms of our organizational structure and processes, but through the lens of the challenges facing us.
Neil Burti, new superintendent of Mount Laurel Public Schools, at Board of Education headquarters on Aug. 26. He previously was a teacher and administrator in Cherry Hill.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Four Green Cats Cafe, which has brought authentic European flavors to Mount Laurel for the last seven years, is about to get a bigger home.
Started as a farmers market stand in 2019, the Rancocas Woods café, whose owners have Czech Republic roots, has become a destination both for South Jersey locals and within the broader Czech diaspora.
Now, with the building’s lease expiring at the end of the year and business that owner Nadia Vasa says has been more popular than ever, she’s soon planning to move her offerings of handmade Czech delicacies to a new, larger location in Haddonfield.
Mila and Nadia Vasa posed for a portrait outside of Four Green Cats Cafe on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, in Mount Laurel. Nadia is moving the cafe to a larger location in Camden County.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
“To continue to provide the customers authentic food and entertainment, we need a bigger space,” Nadia Vasa said in Czech, translated by her husband and business partner, Mila Vasa.
The new spot at 18 Tanner St., the former home of Sang Tong Thai, has both a larger kitchen and dining area to provide enough space to expand their menu and to continue to host musical performances, comedians, and other live events.
The expanded menu will undoubtedly include the staples that Four Green Cats has become known for: Bohemian doughnuts, traditional kolaches, apple strudel, babka — all handmade with flour imported from Europe.
Chimney cakes on display at Four Green Cats Cafe. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Soon to be equipped with a full-service kitchen, the Vasas hope to add new breakfast and lunch offerings in addition to Nadia’s traditional Sunday night dinners.
Once complete, Nadia envisions the new location as embodying the character of classic European cafés of the past that could have been found on street corners from Vienna to Paris.
The Vasas are aiming to open the new location sometime in September and will run both locations concurrently until their Rancocas Woods lease expires, they said.
And while they never wanted to leave Mount Laurel, they hope that the community they’ve built over the years will make the move with them.
The exterior of Four Green Cats Cafe on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026, in Rancocas Woods in Mount Laurel. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
“We’re hoping some of our customers follow us,” Mila said, but he knows that they’ll inevitably lose some of their regulars, especially those who currently live close enough to walk to the café.
More than just a coffee shop and bakery, Nadia sees Four Green Cats as a window into the world that raised her.
Owner Nadia Vasa holds a plate of Czech sandwiches at Four Green Cats Cafe. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
She makes every decision thoughtfully and with cultural authenticity at the forefront, from using her great-grandmother’s recipes to decorating the walls with her grandfather’s art, she said.
“It’s culture that no one gets here unless you fly home,” Mila said.
The interior of Four Green Cats Cafe. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Customers have traveled from across the country to get a taste of their European roots without having to cross the Atlantic, Mila said.
Over the years, the business has also developed a relationship with the Czech embassy in Washington, he said, which will routinely send traveling musicians and artists to Four Green Cats to experience a taste of the Czech Republic.
The interior of Four Green Cats Cafe on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026 in Mount Laurel. Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
More than once, he said proudly, traveling Czechs have raved that Nadia’s food is better than what they have at home.
“Now, she has the room to do what she wants to do,” Mila said.
Iemad Saifo, the 65-year-old owner of Zena’s American Mediterranean Cuisine in Collingswood, has been released after spending two weeks in ICE detention at Delaney Hall in Newark, N.J.
Saifo emigrated to the United States from Syria in 2002 on a business visa and later sought asylum after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. He was detained during a routine ICE check-in July 31.
Saifo is the primary caregiver for his 12-year-old son, who has autism. The elder Saifo also has spasmodic dysphonia, a rare condition that makes it difficult for him to speak, as well as chronic kidney disease.
Dozens of Collingswood-area community members wrote letters and signed a petition urging the court to keep him in South Jersey with his family.
As President Donald Trump pushes his mass deportation agenda, routine check-ins have become increasingly risky for immigrants. Immigration advocates say many of those who have been arrested at ICE check-ins were simply following government protocols.
Last week, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced her office was investigating Delaney Hall after multiple detainees died there during the last year, raising concerns about the facility’s conditions and medical negligence. The privately operated detention center under contract with ICE has been the scene of fierce protests and political fights between the Trump administration and Democrats since its May 2025 reopening.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that Iemad Saifo was arrested both because he does not havepermanent status and because of a 2018 case in which he was indicted and found guilty of witness tampering and sentenced to five years’ probation.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE is targeting the worst of the worst,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson wrote. “Nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.”
One of Saifo’s attorneys, Fiona Powell, credited the 150 notarized letters from community members testifying to his character with helping secure his release.
“This was an outpouring of community support like I’ve never seen before,” she said.
Those letters were authored last weekend during an event that friends, family, and community organizers hosted at his restaurant.
Many in South Jersey know Iemad Saifo from his restaurant, which opened in 2011, and from the nearly 10 years he previously spent working at a local 7-Eleven, said his 27-year-old daughter, Zena Saifo, for whom the restaurant is named.
Zena Saifo said she, her mother, and one of her brothers were granted asylum after the war began. Her father never heard back from the Department of Homeland Security on his asylumapplication, she said,so he later applied for permanent residency through his younger son, who was born in the United States.
“He’s always willing to help people, to give,” Zena Saifo said of her father.“People are really enraged and disgusted by what’s happening and doing everything they can to support him.”
Zena Saifo is still reeling from the day of his detention, she said, when she, her brother, and lawyers arrived at the Mount Laurel ICE office for the check-in around 7:30 a.m. and were made to wait until past noon. The Saifos’lawyer notified Zena her father would be detained. She tearfully pleaded with the ICE officer to let her say goodbye to him but was denied, she said.
“‘Was this the last time I saw my father?’” Zena Saifo recalled wondering in the moment. “It was just really, really devastating.”
In the period since Iemad Saifo’s detention, two of his sons,ages 24 and 26, have taken over the restaurant. His wife has stayed at home and taken care of the youngest. He turned 12 last weekend without his father present.
Zena Saifo said her father’s two requests of her in his absence were to water the family fig tree and to host a big celebration for her brother’s birthday.
On Friday morning, the family was en route to pay the $7,500 bond and pick Iemad Saifo up from Delaney Hall, Powell said.
The 2018 charge was brought up during the bond review, she said, but “in the end the judge was able to see that he’s an older man with a family who needs him and strong community ties and that he deserves to be home with his family.”
Going forward, Iemad Saifo’s legal team will do all it can to secure permanent residency for him. In the interim, Powell said, immigrants are always at risk of detention regardless of their circumstances. The Trump administration has issued 46,000 orders of removal or voluntary deportation since the start of last year in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, more than in the entirety of former President Joe Biden’s term. In New Jersey’s courts, orders of removal or voluntary departure rose 47% just between May and June, from 2,348 to 3,446.
However, to legally detain Iemad Saifo again, the government would need to show something about his situation has changed.
“It could take potentially months or years more in order to get him permanent status here, but we will continue doing everything we can to keep him here,” Powell said.
Betty J. Wilson, 92, of Cherry Hill, celebrated longtime South Jersey teacher, singer, poet, mentor, community advocate, volunteer, and two-time chapter president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., died Thursday, July 16, of cancer at her home.
Mrs. Wilson taught elementary school students in Bordentown, Bridgeton, and Mount Laurel from the early 1960s to the late 1990s, and served as two-time president of the Mount Laurel Teachers Association. She was named one of the country’s top teachers in 1972 by the old Outstanding Teachers of America Association and told the Courier-Post: “Children are our most valuable asset. If we don’t give them the proper training early, there’s not much chance for the future.”
Her family called her “dynamic and outgoing” in a tribute, and her daughter, Saundra Umstead-Capers, said: “She was a born leader and had a commanding presence.”
Mrs. Wilson championed discipline and parental participation in school and at home, and told the Courier-Post: “Most of our children are allowed to talk first and ask too many questions before complete directions are given. … If the child is used to directives, he won’t resent authority. And in life, we all have to take directions from someone else no matter who we are.”
She represented Mount Laurel teachers during sometimes contentious contract negotiations with Board of Education officials and helped improve teacher benefits and job protection through the New Jersey Education Association.
She joined Alpha Kappa Alpha in 1953 at what is now Virginia State University. Later, she cofounded local AKA chapters in Cherry Hill and Voorhees, served as two-time president of the Theta Pi Omega chapter in Cherry Hill, and was recognized by national AKA officials for her contributions.
Friends called Mrs. Wilson “a phenomenal woman” and “a beautiful, smart, professional woman” in online tributes.Courtesy of the family
The theme of her sorority presidency was service, scholarship, and Black American heritage, and she helped establish social service, public speaking, and scholarship programs. “Her presence,” sorority colleagues said in an online tribute, “will be profoundly missed.”
As a singer, Mrs. Wilson had a soaring soprano voice, and she took lessons in high school and college. She performed on a local TV station in Western Pennsylvania when she was young and sang with a traveling choir in college and for the school president.
She also wrote poetry for years and acknowledged the one-year anniversary of the 1999 death of her husband, Wilbur Wilson, by writing in 2000: “Your legacy stays with us and shall always light the way/We thank God for your presence and your sharing every day.”
She lobbied locally for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s, and volunteered with the Rancocas Valley chapter of the Links and the South Jersey chapter of the Continental Societies. She served on the education committee at Evergreen Baptist Church in Palmyra and tutored the children of many church members.
In online tributes, friends called her “a phenomenal woman” and “a beautiful, smart, professional woman.” One friend said: “She impacted so many lives, especially the students she taught.”
Betty Jane Atkins was born April 6, 1934, in Library, Pa., about 12 miles south of Pittsburgh. The oldest of nine children, she was an honor student and the lead singer in every musical during her years at the old Snowden Township High School.
She attended Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Library, earned scholarships to attend college, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education at Virginia State.
Stylish and sophisticated, Mrs. Wilson was a popular figure on the college campus. She was selected by the football team to represent it on their homecoming float in 1953, and she served as the school’s Miss Valentine in February, Miss Apple Blossom in the spring, and Miss ROTC.
She was an engaging storyteller and, her daughter said, “a lot of fun.”
“Sister Wilson embodied the ideals of an Alpha Kappa Alpha woman,” sorority colleagues said, “elegant, poised, and gracious.”
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Wilson is survived by a granddaughter, three sisters, a brother, and other relatives. Two sisters and two brothers died earlier.
Visitation with the family is to be from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7, at Boyd Funeral Home, 1458 Mt. Ephraim Ave., Camden, N.J. 08104. Services are to be at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, at Evergreen Baptist Church, 602 W. 3rd St., Palmyra, N.J. 08065.
Donations in her name may be made to Evergreen Baptist Church, 602 W. 3rd St., Palmyra, N.J. 08065.
In its 69 years as a wildlife refuge, Woodford Cedar Run in Medford has never had a staff veterinarian to care for the thousands of animals that come through its doors annually.
The Burlington County rehabilitation center isn’t alone. Mike O’Malley, Cedar Run’s executive director, said he doesn’t know of any New Jersey wildlife refuges with staff vets. The shortage is a money problem.
Yet less than two weeks ago, Amanda Cameron joined Cedar Run as one of very few full-time wildlife veterinarians in the tristate area. O’Malley said he hopes Cameron’s hiring will improve Cedar Run’s patient survival rates.
“These animals are experiencing some of the most intense traumas you can imagine,” O’Malley said. “This will allow us to take on really complex cases and advance the care we’re providing to all of the animals.”
Cameron, 27 and a Massachusetts native, doesn’t yet have a fully operational space to do exams and procedures on the 8,000 birds, raccoons, rabbits, turtles, and more that cycle through Cedar Run annually. Her main responsibility right now is ordering a laundry list of supplies to furnish a medical suite that has sat half-finished for years in the hopes that Cedar Run would someday have a doctor to use it.
On Monday, items awaited sorting in the small clinic. And while Cameron has mostly been on desk duty, she’s already managed to get her hands on a few cases.
In rain boots and scrubs, Cameron reached across the X-ray table to show the fractured wing of a red-tailed hawk. He’s not out of the woods yet, she said, but he’s on the right track. To survive in the wild, the wings of raptors need to be close to perfect.
“Fortunately that is not surgical,“ Cameron said. ”So we’ve been able to just wrap them and give them some time with pain meds, and he’s doing really well.”
Veterinarian Amanda Cameron looks over the X-ray of a red-tailed hawk with a broken wing bone that would not heal by itself in the wild.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
‘Not just today’
Nonprofit wildlife centers often can’t afford to pay the salary of a full-time doctor, O’Malley said, nor buy expensive equipment to support them. Wildlife rehabs already have to foot the bill for the animals’ medical expenses since they don’t have owners to pay them. Plus, Cedar Run maintains 171 preserved acres in the Pinelands and pays to offer wildlife education services to the public.
About 18 licensed wildlife rehabilitators serve New Jersey, and most specialize in a limited number of species. Only three are located in South Jersey, and O’Malley said Cedar Run is the tristate area’s “biggest and busiest.”
In 2025, Cedar Run spent $710,000 on wildlife rehabilitation-related expenses, $172,000 more than the previous year, according to a 2025 audit provided to The Inquirer by O’Malley. Total salaries and wages were nearly $850,000, and O’Malley said the addition of Cameron will cost the center six figures annually. He declined to share the exact number, but said the cost to the nonprofit is “nothing to sneeze at.”
To support Cameron’s salary, Cedar Run will have to keep a steady fundraising pace, but O’Malley said that shouldn’t be a problem with donor support and creative revenue streams, like hosting weddings.
“We feel confident and able to raise the resources needed, not just today but tomorrow,” O’Malley said.
Last year, Cedar Run earned $1.7 million in contributions, grants, and donations, a $780,000 boost from 2024.
Rather than hiring full-time vets, places like Cedar Run typically outsource their medical needs through volunteer doctors, or transport animals to exotics vets nearby. Cedar Run partners with Animal & Bird Health Care Center in Cherry Hill, along with Rancocas Veterinary Associates in Mount Laurel and Rowan University’s new Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine.
But the extra stress from transport creates unnecessary risk, Cameron said. Some species, like rabbits, can’t handle loud noises. Other animals can injure themselves in panic.
The rehabilitation center takes in almost any wildlife native to New Jersey, aside from black bears and domestic animals. When Jersey residents find an injured raptor, rabbit, or raccoon, Cedar Run’s 12 staff members and more than 200 volunteers do their best to make sure they are treated and released back into their native environments.
Nonreleasable resident raccoons at Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge. The 12 staff members and more than 200 volunteers care for thousands of animals each year, including many who are unable to be returned to the wild.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Success is not easy to define. About 20% to 30% of all patients brought to Cedar Run survive, O’Malley said, a statistic exacerbated by bird flu and the fact that many animals brought to the center have endured traumatic incidents.
Unlike domestic veterinarians, Cameron is not providing annual checkups, diabetes treatments, or allergy medications to her patients.
“These animals are getting severed by lawnmowers. They’re getting poisoned. … If you remove those animals that need immediate euthanasia off the top, we’re more like 50%, which is obviously much better,” O’Malley said. “So there’s a lot of nuance.”
‘Now we can do this’
Lori Swanson, director of wildlife rehabilitation, has worked at Cedar Run for more than 20 years. On Monday, Swanson stepped out of a fishy-smelling hospital to greet Cameron. Volunteers were preparing fresh seafood in the hospital kitchen for their patients, donated by an intern’s dad.
“Heather is in there with an opossum,” Swanson said. “Which you’ll need to look at.”
The staff at Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge in Medford in the busy kitchen Monday, Aug. 3, 2026, preparing lunch for all the animals in their care.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
As the only veterinarian on-site, Cameron will care for a variety of species with a vast range of traumas, from broken bones to blindness, along with helping to manage the health concerns of Cedar Run’s 60 nonreleasable residents. Cameron has already taken a first look at a resident skunk with heart disease, and a resident red fox with a cloudy eye.
When the Shreiber School’s first round of vet students reach their externship year, students will shadow Cameron at Cedar Run, making Rowan one of only a handful of vet schools in the U.S. to have a wildlife center affiliate.
Cameron grew up about a half hour from Tufts University in Massachusetts. During her undergraduate career at Purdue University, she found time to volunteer at Tufts Wildlife Clinic, and Cameron said her interest in wildlife grew from there. She graduated with her doctorate of veterinary medicine from Tufts in 2025 and finished her internship at the wildlife clinic a few weeks ago, before moving to Marlton, a short commute to the Medford refuge.
She’s been working hard to teach Cedar Run’s rehabbers a bit of what she knows, and she said everyone is hungry to learn.
“We’ve all gotten a little bit too excited,” Cameron said. “They’ve had me look at a couple of animals already, and everyone’s just like, ‘Oh, my gosh, now we can do this.’”
Swanson is one of the excited ones. She said she hopes Cameron’s addition will mean less strain on the animals and on rehabbers’ time.
“Well, this has been my dream for about 15 years,” Swanson said.
It’ll take a while for Cameron to meet all the wildlife at Cedar Run. Monday was her first time encountering the refuge’s resident raccoons, Charlie and Gus, who were raised illegally by humans. But after decades of waiting, O’Malley and the rehabbers are eager to see what Cameron can do.
“If we had our way, we would’ve had a vet 20 years ago, but it required many years of planning,” O’Malley said.
“Sorry, Mike, I was too young,” Cameron said.
“Yeah, you would have been in diapers, I think,” O’Malley said. “It’s taken quite a while to lay that groundwork.”
Marc Kaplin takes “pit bull” as a compliment when it’s used to describe him. The longtime real estate lawyer who has championed property rights for developers in the region takes it to mean “aggressive, prepared, knowledgeable.”
He’s using that tenacity right now in court, battling over whether his client’s plan to redevelop the recently shuttered Exton SquareMall into a mixed-use town center can go forward despite the town supervisors’ denial.
For decades, Kaplin, 82, has been behind dozens of regional development projects, with clientele spanning the Delaware Valley, into the Lehigh Valley, the Poconos, Delaware, and New Jersey.
Kaplin’s interest in real estate law kicked into high gear when his family moved to Blue Bell in 1978, near Wings Airways. It was still “a prairie” with little development, he recalls. The airway owners wanted to expand the runway, challenging the township’s ordinance. He was hired by a group of neighbors to oppose it.
Marc Kaplin, a real estate powerhouse, talked to The Inquirer about the Exton mall redevelopment project and more.Courtesy of Marc Kaplin
That led to his role as township solicitor for Whitpain Township in Montgomery County in the early 1980s. Eventually, he moved into development: First working for his landlord, Bud Hansen of Hansen Properties, which becameone of the biggest developers in Montgomery and Chester Counties.
When Toll Brothers started, Kaplin was there. He’s represented the home construction company for more than 40 years. Other clients, like retail developers Wolfson Group, have also spent decades alongside Kaplin.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
You’ve worked in the city and the suburbs. Where is it easier to get projects done?
They’re both extremely difficult and getting more and more difficult for different reasons.
Philadelphia, if you don’t have a by-right project, you’ve got to go to the neighborhoods, the RCOs [registered community organizations]. You got to spend a lot of time, and it’s more political and satisfying people, than it is complying with every small [thing].
Not only do you have to make sure that all the I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed in the suburbs, you got to know what to look for.
There’s often community pushback in development projects. What are you hearing now when communities oppose a project?
Just seems like everybody is against almost everything for a variety of reasons. Everybody complains about traffic. That’s the biggest thing. It’s ‘We’re here, we live here, we don’t need any more stores. We don’t need any more of this or that.’ But a lot of times you get a mixed bag.
Now the Exton mall, we got very good reception to the Exton mall. It’s only a small group of people who are against the redevelopment of the Exton mall.
Does the pushback to Exton Square Mall feel representative of larger trends in the region?
It’s an anomaly for a project like that. When you look at the malls that are in really bad shape, townships are reaching out and want them redeveloped. Montgomery Mall. Plymouth Meeting Mall. Some over in New Jersey. I’m working on the Berkshire Mall up in the Reading/Wyomissing area, and we’re getting tremendous cooperation.
These malls are 1,500-pound gorillas. They killed tax base, millions and millions of dollars that were coming in before. … I can’t give you a logical reason why two supervisors in West Whiteland are putting up this fight. I’m waiting for a judge to make a decision.
We’re pretty optimistic that we’ll be able to go ahead, but it ain’t over until it’s over.
You’ve been quoted as saying ‘indoor malls don’t work,’ but we are seeing some success in King of Prussia and Cherry Hill. What do you think sets them apart from places like Exton mall?
They are the super regional malls, and they do work, and Simon controls many, many of them. They work, but the Plymouth Meeting Mall doesn’t work, the Exton mall doesn’t work, the Willow Grove mall doesn’t work, and many, many more.
There’s a whole long history of why that’s so. There were, in the ’60s and ’70s, department stores we no longer have: Wanamakers, Strawbridge’s, Snellenburg’s, and on and on. … And then you had J.C. Penney and Sears, and it was much easier way back then to get three large anchors. Then the Kmarts came along, and the Walmarts, the big boxes that didn’t have all of the infrastructure. The common operating expensesare much less, because you have all interior halls — heating, air-conditioning, and all that.
Members of the Strawbridge family explore the old Food Hall on the first floor of the former Strawbridge & Clothier department store site on the north side of the 800 block of Market Street Dec. 17, 2019.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Because it’s run by the best operator around.That’s my client, Steve Wolfson. It’s had a[n] … anchor for now over 20 years.
In Exton, there was about a 10-year period when there were two supervisors who were against everything. So you didn’t see a great deal more development, but the Main Street at Exton used the new urbanist approach 22, 23 years ago and made huge improvements to the roads. There are great roads there, and it was right in the path of development.
Are there any cases or projects that have shaped Chester County as we know it today?
Exton has always been called the crossroads of Chester County. You’ve also got the Hankin Group that has done all the development in Chester County. … You had very big companies come in — Vanguard — and you had good school systems and relatively decent roads. I think it’s just the continued outward development from Philadelphia.
Many suburbs are facing affordable housing crises. How do you predict municipalities will overcome NIMBYism when it comes to those projects?
It’s a very, very, very difficult problem. There are very few places in the entire country where it’s been solved. New Jersey has the most extensive program in the country to cause the development of affordable housing … that’s really the Mount Laurel doctrine, and where the townships are required not only to make affordable housing available, but also to make it happen.
The market cannot create affordable housing without governmental help. Just can’t be done. It’s not enough land. Regulations are enormous, expensive.
It’s a societal problem that can’t be solved just by municipalities and homebuilders and homebuyers.
Do you think all of the proposed data centers will actually get built?
I’m involved in a couple of data centers. … At first the communities were dead set against more warehouses, particularly up in the Lehigh Valley, and then when this particular community heard ‘data center,’ they were ecstatic — for a whole variety reasons: very little traffic, very few people in schools, high-paying jobs, and now there’s this national swell attacking data centers.
The data centers we’re seeing now, in one fashion or another, are creating their own energy. So my own particular opinion is that it’s just blown up, overblown, over-exaggerated, and we’re going to need all this computing power as we move into the next technology age.
Mount Laurel public schools will start the next academic year with a new leader at the helm.
Neil Burti will take over as superintendent of schools starting Aug. 1, succeeding George Rafferty, who is retiring after leading the district for a decade.
After an extensive search, “Dr. Burti distinguished himself as the candidate whose experience, leadership style, and vision best aligned with the needs of the Mount Laurel School District,” Danielle Stuffo, president of the Mount Laurel Board of Education, said in an email.
Burti has more than 25 years of experience as an educator and administrator and is a longtime employee of the Cherry Hill Public Schools. While there, he served at all levels of leadership and was most recently the director of secondary education for the district.
Earlier this year, Burti also stepped in to handle the principal responsibilities during the second half of the school year at Cherry Hill High School East following a period of administrative upheaval in the school district.
The shake-up came after a lawsuit filed last September alleged that East’s former principal, alongside the Cherry Hill Board of Education and two other top administrators, subjected a former assistant principal to discrimination and retaliation.
“We are confident [Burti] will build upon the district’s many strengths, work collaboratively with our staff and community, and continue our focus on providing an exceptional educational experience for every student,” Stuffo said.
Stuffo said the district’s goals will largely remain the same under new leadership.
Like other districts, Stuffo said, Mount Laurel will work to continuously improve student experience and outcomes while adapting to evolving educational needs — and doing so within an increasingly limited budget.
“Fortunately, Mount Laurel is well positioned, with excellent staff and strong systems already in place. As Dr. Burti becomes familiar with the district, he will have the opportunity to evaluate our organizational structure and administrative leadership and, if appropriate, make recommendations to the Board for consideration,” she said in the email.
Burti was named the 2024 New Jersey Secondary School Principal of the Year during his time leading Cherry Hill’s John A. Carusi Middle School.
Burti holds a bachelor’s degree in movement studies and exercise science from East Stroudsburg University, a master’s degree in educational leadership from Temple University, and a doctorate in innovation and leadership from Wilmington University.
