JAMESBURG — Efforts to improve the borough’s downtown area can continue thanks to a grant from the state Department of Community Affairs.
The $70,000 grant was presented to Councilwoman Barbara Carpenter and Councilman John Longo during the Oct. 7 meeting of the Middlesex County Board of Freeholders.
The town’s share of the annual Downtown and Business District Improvement Fund Grant will contribute to the second phase of the Jamesburg Streetscape project, the first phase of which was completed this past spring.
“We did a two-block section of West Railroad Avenue,” Business Administrator Denise Jawidzik said. “We fixed the curbing and the sidewalks, we put a 4-foot-wide section of decorative-stamped concrete down the sidewalk, planted blossoming plum trees, and put some litter-proof grates around the trees.”
Borough officials felt that something needed to be done to improve the business district, because the older trees in the area were cracking and lifting the sidewalks, Mayor Anthony LaMantia said.
“The grant was out there for a streetscape program for the downtown business district, and we had problems with the trees that were there picking up the sidewalks, so we figured that would be a good program to start with it,” LaMantia said.
Jawidzik said Phase Two of the project will consist of making the same improvements to East Railroad Avenue across the street. Although the $70,000 grant was double that of the $35,000 grant received for Phase One, the blocks on East Railroad Avenue are significantly longer than those of West Railroad Avenue, and the grant may only contain enough funds to fix about three blocks.
Regardless, Jawidzik said, the borough plans to improve both East Railroad and West Railroad avenues in their entirety, and will continue to improve the downtown area as more funding becomes available.
“We’ll just keep going as long as we can keep getting grant money, and we would like to do all of East and West Railroad Avenue from one end to the other,” Jawidzik said.
The borough has been able to give the facelift to about one-quarter of the street so far, but it does apply for the grant each year, and usually gets between $60,000 and $70,000 from the county.
“Middlesex County has come up with a lot of money to help improve Jamesburg. They have been very good to us,” Jawidzik said.
The borough has received the Middlesex County Downtown and Business District Improvement Fund Grant in past years as well, and has used the money to improve the deteriorating curbs and sidewalks along Buckelew Avenue, which is an extension of Railroad Avenue.
Jawidzik said businesses in the downtown area also have pitched in, and helped the town improve the image of the entire area.
“The whole business district is revamping,” she said. “Many of the businesses have redone their facades and everything. New businesses have come. It’s really getting to be a booming area, much improved over what it was even 10 years ago.”
“In other words,” added LaMantia, the municipality has been “just dressing up the whole downtown area.”
BY SETH MANDEL
Staff Writer