Mark Holmes to resign from post Saturday
By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
The purpose of government is to take the resources it has and properly distribute them among the citizens, never giving more to one group than another group so a balance can be achieved.
That’s what Mayor Mark Holmes, who is resigning from the Township Council effective Saturday, has tried to achieve — and mostly accomplished, he said — in his 11 years on the council. His four-year term would end in December 2009, but he is stepping down for personal and professional reasons.
“You want to provide for everybody, from the less fortunate to the affluent,” Mayor Holmes said. “Those who have more need less, and those who have less need more. Trying to achieve that balance is what makes Lawrence so great.”
Reflecting on that philosophy and how he translated it into action during his three terms on the council, Mayor Holmes pointed to an initiative he undertook early in his career on the council.
That initiative involved using money from the township’s Affordable Housing Fund to hire contractors to make repairs to houses belonging to families that qualified as low- and moderate-income households. About 40 homeowners throughout the township have benefited from the program, he said.
Mayor Holmes said he also is proud of the township’s efforts to revitalize the Eggerts Crossing neighborhood off Eggerts Crossing Road. The township paid for improvements to the former Johnson Trolley line, which has become a bicycle and pedestrian trail, as well as for an expansion to Gilpin Park on Short Johnson Avenue.
The overall result is a more attractive neighborhood in which several new houses have been built in the last few years, Mayor Holmes said. He grew up in Eggerts Crossing, and he is raising his own family in the neighborhood now.
Mayor Holmes said he also has supported the Lawrenceville Main Street business district revitalization, and he would like to see a similar revitalization occur in the business district on Lawrence Road in the Eldridge Park neighborhood — an effort that is being spearheaded by the Greater Eldridge Park Neighborhood Association.
“When I first ran for Township Council, I wanted to make a difference,” he said. “Everybody generally gets involved in politics for that reason. You need to have a strong will to serve the community. That’s where it starts.”
Mayor Holmes saw that dedication and commitment first-hand as a child when his father, William Holmes, was elected to the Lawrence Township Board of Education in the 1970s. He was also the first black to serve as school board president.
“My father was my real inspiration to serve in elected office,” he said. “To have seen my father elected three times to the school board and to see his commitment to the school district to make things better is what made me want to run for Township Council.”
Mayor Holmes also attributes his desire to serve to his mother, Helen V. Holmes, who was the executive director of the Lawrence Senior Center for many years. His uncles, Harold Vereen and Fred Vereen Jr., also have been active in the community.
Harold Vereen was the first black to serve on the Township Council in the early 1990s. Fred Vereen Jr. was the first executive director of the Lawrence Neighborhood Service Center and also managed the Eggerts Crossing Village affordable housing development.
Mayor Holmes acknowledged he, too, broke new ground just as his father did. Mayor Holmes is the first black to serve as mayor — an honorary post that carries no authority — in 2004. He was chosen to be mayor again this year.
While he counts serving as mayor and also shepherding some of his affordable housing and redevelopment proposals through the council as some of the high points of serving on the governing body, there have been some disappointments, too, Mayor Holmes said.
One of those disappointments is the inability to convince the council to tweak the zoning on a 135-acre parcel on Princeton Pike at Lewisville Road — the former Union Camp property, which belonged to the RCN Corp. and now belongs to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
The Planning Board approved an office park for RCN, but it was never built. RCN sold the land to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which also has not developed the land.
The approved plan apparently is not attractive to developers, and, perhaps, some changes in the zoning regulations would make a difference, Mayor Holmes said.
“There should be a serious investigation into making it more attractive to developers,” he said. “It is prime real estate. We should allow a developer to be creative. The approvals that exist today don’t work. Let’s not let it sit there, vacant. That’s one thing I wanted to get done, but it didn’t get done.”
Mayor Holmes also is disappointed a proposal to build affordable housing on a 3.5-acre parcel of township-owned land on Johnson Avenue never became a reality. Over the years, developers — both for-profit and not-for-profit — sought to build housing on the land, but the council placed it into the Green Acres Program for permanent open space preservation two years ago.
Mayor Holmes said he was stepping down early because of personal and professional commitments. Earlier this month, he was named as executive director of the Asbury Park Housing Authority.
“I just don’t have the time anymore,” he said. “I need time for my professional life. I want to spend time with my family. I would be doing a disservice to Township Council. (Serving on the council) is a full-time job. It’s a part-time job on paper, but a full-time job in reality.”
“The will that I had to serve the community with commitment and dedication is no longer there,” Mayor Holmes said. “There is someone else out there who can do the job. If you let life take its natural course, there is always a beginning and an end.”