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Southern Exposure: July, 2011

by Editorial Staff--South Jersey Magazine
…From the pages of South Jersey Magazine…

Go Figure

“Seventeen months ago, I stood up here and made the biggest mistake of my legislative career.”: New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), on his vote against legalizing gay marriage in New Jersey.

48th: New Jersey drivers’ Ranking, out of drivers in 50 states, when it comes to knowledge of driving rules and regulations—up from 50th in 2010.

35%: Portion of New Jerseyans who think the state is a “very good” place to vacation, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll.

$2 billion: Decline in property values across Camden County in the past two years, spurring an 8 percent property tax increase.

125: Tents erected outside the Trenton Statehouse—along with a replica cemetery—by union workers protesting the “death” of public workers’ rights to bargain collectively for health benefits.

$107 million: Savings anticipated from the pension and health care reform plan outlined by Sen. Stephen Sweeney and Gov. Chris Christie in its first year.

$120 billion: Amount the pension reforms could save over 30 years.

15,000: State and public employees expected to retire in the first half of the year—approaching a record pace.

$25,000: Annual cost of maintaining a Jersey Shore lighthouse, according to bidders on two lighthouses for sale by the United States Coast Guard. Private individuals have been sizing up the island structures as potential vacation retreats.

$335,000: Salary Rutgers President Richard McCormick will receive as a professor, once he leaves his current post next year. The news drew noisy protests from students.

Twelve: Weekly trips the execs at Conner Strong and Buckelew may make via a new 45-foot-wide helipad, for which they won Evesham Planning Board approval in June—over the objections of hundreds of neighbors. The company has two pilots on staff.

$62.5 million: Amount New Jersey’s blueberry crop brought in last year, making it the most valuable in the state.

Four: Number of South Jersey high schools named on Newsweek’s list of top 500 public high schools in the nation: No. 125 Haddonfield Memorial High School; No. 226 Cherry Hill High School East; No. 265 Moorestown High School; No. 402 Cherry Hill High School West

$63 million: Cost of the two-year renovation of the Marlton Circle intersection, now complete.

$1,000: New fine in Mount Laurel for vicious dog behavior—up from $50.

$150: Amount scammers in Gloucester County asked elderly victims to pay in return for resurfacing their asphalt driveways. Midway through the job, they upped the price.

“I don’t know what we’re going to call the festival now—the ‘apple pie’?”: Bordentown City Mayor Jim Lynch on the fate of the town’s beloved Cranberry Festival, now that cranberry giant Ocean Spray is moving its bottling and processing plant out of state.

Published (and copyrighted) in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 4 (July, 2011).
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