Memorial Hill Project Nearly Finished

The grass is already starting to grow on at that will open sometime this fall.

Now, workers are out doing a bit of reshaping since caused some dirt from the steeper side of the hill to wash down to the bottom.

“We’re in the process of reforming the sides,” said Deputy Mayor Don Brauckmann, who’s also the director of parks and recreation. “Really, at this point, we have to put the fence around the sides and back as a barrier. And we’re just waiting for the grass to grow. Once the seed is taken, we hope to open the hill.”

Memorial Hill actually started out as an idea in the 1970s. When Brauckmann took over parks and rec in January, he and Fred Turek, township superintendent of public works, pulled out old Memorial Park plans and saw a hill was part of the original design.

Brauckmann said he didn’t think about it again after that until he found out the township’s compost facility was at capacity and the state Department of Environmental Protection was threatening fines.

“Can we make a hill out of that?” Brauckmann’s thinking was of the extra compost.

The short answer is yes. But, it wasn’t nearly enough topsoil for the 10,000-plus cubic yards needed for a hill.

But then, the was slated for this year at Memorial Park. The soil from digging there needed to go somewhere too.

“If we were going to move soil, it would have been a big expense,” Brauckmann said. “There’s no return on investment. The idea was, let’s keep all this soil in town and let’s find a use for it.”

That’s when the hill idea came back, Brauckmann said.

He brought it up during a parks and rec advisory committee meeting whose members endorsed the project.

“But, we were still short,” Brauckmann said.

So he and Committeeman Ben Young, who is the director of public works, started to reach out to local excavation companies.

, out of Moorestown, was doing a job in Pennsauken and offered their soil at a good price, Brauckmann said.

“It was kind of the final piece of the puzzle where we knew we’d have enough soil to do what we wanted,” he said.

The cost of acquiring the dirt from Whittendale is around $17,500 but Brauckmann said overall, it’s an extremely cost-effective project.

The cost savings comes from not having to pay for trucks to transport the compost and the soil from the parking lot to elsewhere in the county—something that would have to have been done; it's all staying in the township.

“We’re saving a lot of money where we would have to pay,” Brauckmann said. “We’re investing in our town. That’s the cool part of it.”

The cost of the project right now is in the $30,000 range.

“But when you subtract the savings from the other projects," Brauckmann said, “the cost of the hill is almost a break even.”

Road millings from the township's paving project will be used for the parking lot, and even for the base of new batting cages at Wood Park.

When finished, Memorial Hill will be multi-purpose—a sledding hill in the winter months and a running an exercise hill for sports teams and others year-round.

The 30-foot hill boasts a steeper side as well as a gradual grade to be used for a less strenuous workout or to walk back up the hill.

And one of the more controversial aspects about the hill has been liability and extra insurance costs to the township. According to John Hanuscin, the township’s liability insurance broker, “the township has not seen and does not anticipate any increase whatsoever on insurance premiums.”

Cinnaminson is part of a JIF, a joint insurance fund, with several other towns that have sledding hills, including Mt. Laurel, Lumberton, Willingboro and Delran.

“The hills are commonplace throughout the state,” Brauckmann said. “There is no increased liability.”

The project is capital-funded and part of the parks and recreation budget money, which can only be used for parks and recreation projects. There is no increase to the budget, Brauckmann said, and taxpayers will not see an increase.

“I think it’s a nice addition to the park,” he said. “It’s nice being able to complete something with minimal impact to our budget at all. It’s got a wide audience.”

Memorial Hill is part of the . and parks were renovated in recent years. is nearly finished with the and is slated to receive new playground equipment.  

“This creates something we didn’t have,” Brauckmann said of the hill. “I can’t wait for winter.”