Redevelopment just one of goals for Eggerts group

Civic Pride

By: Lea Kahn
   Editor’s note: The following is part of a continuing series identifying various civic groups around Lawrence. The series runs the fourth Thursday of every month.
   The Eggerts Crossing neighborhood is tucked away in the southwest corner of Lawrence Township, a stone’s throw from the U.S. Army National Guard Armory on Eggert Crossing Road and across the woods from Ewing Township border.
   For many years, the streets in Eggerts Crossing were unpaved. There were no sidewalks for the children to walk to school. Many houses had begun to deteriorate in the neighborhood, which is bordered by Eggert Crossing Road on the north, the Eggerts Crossing Village townhouse development on the south, Drift Avenue on the east and Ewing Township on the west.
   It took lobbying by the Eggerts Crossing Civic League to ensure that the streets were paved and sidewalks were installed in the early 1980s. The civic group also lobbied the township for state and federal grants to fix up the houses.
   That is the main purpose of the Eggerts Crossing Civic League — to help people in the community and to try to improve the area, said Harold Vereen, president of the neighborhood association. The group was formed in 1949.
   "The Eggerts Crossing Civic League has a rich history of lobbying for the community," Mr. Vereen said. "Eggerts Crossing has always been an area that has suffered from neglect. Our roads were the last to be paved and the last to get curbs and sidewalks. We have always tried to get improvements made to the area."
   Today, the Eggerts Crossing Civic League is pushing for a redevelopment plan for the neighborhood. A group of Rutgers University graduate students prepared a redevelopment plan for the neighborhood as a class project and presented it to the residents last month.
   The civic league also was one of the sponsors of the Lawrence Non-Profit Housing Inc., which developed the 100-unit Eggerts Crossing Village affordable housing development on Johnson Avenue.
   And the civic league also supports the Lawrence Neighborhood Service Center, Mr. Vereen said. The center helps low-income households and provides programming for neighborhood youngsters.
   The Eggerts Crossing Civic League has handed out 66 scholarships for Lawrence High School students since 1980, he said. It also conducts voter registration drives, signing up residents so they can vote, he added.
   "The civic league wants to get people to take charge of the community and to get involved," Mr. Vereen said. "We want to educate people and get them involved in the community, in the school system and in politics. Everything we have, we had to go out and get (by lobbying)."
   The Eggerts Crossing Civic League has about 30 members, Mr. Vereen said. The group meets at 10 a.m. on the first Saturday of the month. The meetings are held in the Eggerts Crossing Village community room.
   Mr. Vereen is the president of the Eggerts Crossing Civic League, and Edward Caldwell is the vice president. Resa Harris is the secretary and Stephany Vereen is the treasurer.
   For more information, interested persons may call Mr. Vereen at (609) 882-4344, or any member of the Eggerts Crossing Civic League.
   Civic groups that would like to be identified in a future edition of The Lawrence Ledger’s "Civic Pride" series should contact Managing Editor Steve Feitl at [email protected] or (609) 466-8650.