Mended road pleases locals
By: Joseph Harvie
The once cracked and crumbled concrete sidewalks have been resurfaced.
The pothole-ridden road and parking lot have been repaved.
The once mildew- and mold-stained vinyl siding on the building has also been replaced.
"It is completely different," Ellen Liggon, a 21-year resident of Deans Apartments, said Saturday.
Ms. Liggon was speaking about the recent upgrades to the 40-unit affordable-housing apartment complex on Blackhorse Lane, which are nearly complete. Work is still being done on four apartments and should be finished by Dec. 15, said Joseph Auld, director of capital projects for Volunteers of America, the nonprofit organization that owns the complex.
The nonprofit will receive up to $1.25 million from the township’s Affordable Housing Trust fund for the renovations after it submits vouchers for completed work, said Ron Schmalz, the township’s public affairs coordinator.
Volunteers of America purchased the apartment complex in December 2005, after residents complained to the South Brunswick Post and the Township Council that the apartments and the complex as a whole had fallen into disrepair.
The changes are evident in Ms. Liggon’s apartment. As she walked a guest through the apartment and the complex on Saturday, she pointed out the new storm and front doors and the new rear sliding glass doors. The once torn carpeting on the first floor had been replaced with laminate wood flooring and all of the windows were newly installed.
In the kitchen, the countertop, cabinets, sink and refrigerator were new. The walls throughout her apartment and her neighbors’ apartments were freshly painted and a quarter wall at the top of her staircase that had been loose and unsteady was now secured.
In addition, the renovated bathroom had a new vanity, medicine cabinet and a fiberglass tub-surround. The stairs and upper floor of all the apartments were re-carpeted, the heating was converted from electric to gas and the central air-conditioning units were replaced.
Ms. Liggon said the residents were mostly pleased with the jobs, even though there were some complaints about the laminate flooring being a little cold and the quality of the countertops. However, she said the complaints were minimal.
"Are the countertops top of the line?" Ms. Liggon said. "No, but they’re not bottom of the line either. I had to remind the people that we are living in an affordable housing complex. But, all in all, the people are happy."
Ms. Liggon also likes the new view out her back window. The once-dilapidated playground, which consisted of a slide and a swing on deteriorating wood, was replaced with modern playground equipment, complete with small tunnels leading to a slide, a seesaw and a swing.
"They ran a fence all along this side of the property too," Ms. Liggon said, pointing to the 6-foot-tall, wooden, stockade fence. "So now, hopefully, we won’t have any guinea hens coming onto the property from the farm right there."
She said that the changes make the apartments feel like new.
"It’s nice," Ms. Liggon said. "I even bought some new furniture to make it look even better."
The repairs were done four units at a time, Ms. Liggon said. When repairs were being made, residents packed and stored their belongings aside from what they needed for the week they were out of their apartments in on-site storage containers, Ms. Liggon said.
"It was just like moving," Ms. Liggon said. "Except you had to move things like food and clothes that you would need for the week."
The residents were moved into four apartments that Volunteers of America had converted into temporary suites, Ms. Liggon said. Ms. Liggon and her son, who was home from college at the time of the repairs, were put up in a single-bedroom apartment, which was a little more cramped than they would have liked, she said.
"People said, ‘well it’s only 10 days,’" Ms. Liggon said. "But let me tell you, it was a long 10 days. But we got through it."
Residents aren’t the only ones pleased with the results. Mr. Auld said the nonprofit is happy to see the project near completion and that residents can return to living in their own apartments.
"We’re quite proud of it, actually," Mr. Auld said. "It was a rough road, but we got past the rough parts easily. The contractor really kicked in and the architect did a wonderful job and also the subcontractors worked really well, too. The general contractor is not from the area so it took some time for him and the subcontractors to work together, but they all pulled through and worked hard to get the job done."
Mr. Auld said that, once the four suites are renovated and converted back into apartments, the only work that will remain is conversion of the utility and management office into an expanded community room. That should start in the spring, he said.
"We want to be able to offer more services to our tenants," Mr. Auld said.

