Gloucester County News in Brief

Richard P. Miller, president and chief executive officer of Virtua Health, was named the 2008 Lean Six Sigma chief executive officer of the year at the fourth annual Worldwide Conventions and Business Forums summit last month in Chicago.

The award is given to a leader who has achieved outstanding organizational advancement through the application of Lean and Six Sigma business models.

Miller was one of the first health-care leaders to adopt Six Sigma, a statistical problem-solving approach driven by patient expectations, and Lean, a process designed to drive rapid change and deliver quantifiable improvement in an organization by streamlining workflow, eliminating unnecessary steps, and addressing potential safety issues.

Miller was chosen for the award by an independent panel of Lean and Six Sigma experts.

Joseph Rizzuto of Woodbury, manager of the sewer department of Evesham Township's Municipal Utilities Authority, recently was honored with the Robert Rowe Award for Laboratory Analyst Excellence.

The award was presented to Rizzuto at the New Jersey Water Environment Association's President's Award luncheon last month in Atlantic City.

The award recognizes individuals for outstanding professionalism, performance, and overall contributions to the water-quality-analysis laboratory profession.

Rizzuto joined Evesham's MUA as a laboratory technician in 1993. He advanced to laboratory manager before being promoted to his current position in 2007.

On June 16, the Gloucester County Library System will begin offering its customers the option of receiving items they have placed on hold through the mail.

Called MailLit, the service will send any book, CD or DVD from the system's collection to the library's registered borrowers at their homes. The program is funded through a grant from the South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative.

Currently, borrowers reserving an item can have it delivered to their closest branch library for pickup. With MailLit, borrowers have the option of choosing "mail" at the time the customer places a hold on a title in the library's collection.

Items at the library system's five branches, in Mullica Hill, Glassboro, Greenwich Township, Logan Township or Swedesboro, will be mailed to the customer by the end of the next business day after the hold has been placed.

Holds can be placed from the library's online catalog by going to

» READ MORE: www.gcls.org

and clicking on "Library Catalog."

MailLit customers can return their materials in the mailing container used to ship the items using the enclosed mailing label. The customer will be responsible for return postage, or the item can be dropped off at the nearest library for free.

For more information, call the Gloucester County Library's circulation department at 856-223-6060.

Gloucester County added 35 acres of land to Owens Memorial Park in Monroe Township late last month.

The acquisition nearly doubled the size of the park, which had been 36 acres.

The land will be "dedicated to recreation for present and future generations," Freeholder Director Stephen M. Sweeney said.

The land, previously known as a place to go for a Halloween adventure, was purchased for nearly $1.23 million from the Genova family. Monroe paid $306,250, or 25 percent of the costs, and the remaining 75 percent was paid by the county. In turn, the county will seek reimbursement of 50 percent of the total cost from the New Jersey Green Acres program.

Owens Memorial Park has ball fields, tennis and basketball courts, a skating park and hockey rinks, a playground, and a running-and-walking track. The new addition will add frontage on Clayton-Williamstown Road.

Gloucester County has preserved about 14,500 acres, consisting of 11,900 acres of farmland and 2,600 acres of open space.

Gloucester County will hold a shredding event from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday in the rear parking lot of the Gloucester County Institute of Technology in Sewell.

The event is free and open to county residents.

An industrial-size shredder truck will be on-site along with county investigative and law- enforcement personnel, as well as security staff.

Each household will be limited to 150 pounds of household paper or documents for shredding. No businesses will be permitted. Residents can call 856-384-6855 with questions about the event.