By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
”All revved up and no place to go!” — MEATLOAF
The Hopewell Township Committee seems to have really made the right move by deciding to form a task force to study and make recommendations on a proposed teen center in Hopewell Valley.
The proposal is a modest one, and that’s fitting for economic times like these. The proposed center could give local teens a place to go and do things they like — particularly during the hours of the day after school ends — while planning continues on a full-service YMCA community center on 13 acres of vacant land in northwest Pennington.
The proposal to house a teen center in leased space at an estimated cost of less than $100,000 a year has been put forward by the Hopewell Township Youth Advisory Board. That impressive group, comprised of Central High School boys and girls, is advised by township resident Kim Bruno. The YAB has a liaison to the Township Committee, Michael Markulec.
Following a very well-done presentation by the YAB on the proposed teen center at the last Township Committee meeting, Mr. Markulec strongly endorsed the group’s idea of forming a task force to look into the matter further. Other committee members, along with township police Chief George Meyer, Municipal Alliance Chairwoman Heidi Kahme, township recreational Director Judy Niederer and Phil Ludeke of the local YMCA board, voiced their support, too.
The idea of a teen center has been discussed off and on in the Valley for more than 20 years. It’s true the only way to find out for sure if teens would use it would be to be build it. That’s why starting it in relatively small, leased space — 1,500 square feet has been discussed by the YAB — makes sense.
Some teens choose not to participate in after-school extracurricular activities like sports or music. Those activities are just not their cup of tea, that’s all, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
But too many of those who make the choice to avoid the activities now available seem to be just hanging after school out on the streets of Pennington and at the Pennington Shopping Center.
On half days of school, this situation is really deplorable and has been for years. On those days, the hours-long adolescent mix of antic-driving and quirky pedestrian behavior are accidents waiting to happen. Frankly, I think it would be irresponsible to let that situation alone go on any longer without beginning to take actual steps to do something about it.
Even in economic times like these, it seems feasible for this community to raise less than $100,000 a year to give these youngsters a place to go. How many tens of millions of dollars have been spent on preserving land as open space in the Valley during the past few decades? It was a good idea to do that (and we’re still doing it).
The point here is a leased teen center could be started at a very small fraction of that cost. Organized after-school activities are not for everyone.
That doesn’t mean those who choose not to participate in them should be consigned to wandering around streets and parking lots and maybe getting into situations and substances they shouldn’t. It’s an old story. We’ve been seeing it rehashed, week in and week out, in the Police Blotter, for years. A teen center could work effectively against that unhappy trend.
A big question: would the kids, some of them anyway, think the center was cool? Because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t go, of course.
It could be cool. The teen center in Doylestown, Pa., has 1,500 square feet, Ms. Bruno said, with a stage at one end and an excellent sound system. Live and recorded music can be played. Some of the live music could be played by local talent. There’s plenty of it here. Youngsters still love music.
There could be a pool table, too. Pool will never be un-cool. That’s just not in the cards.
The task force of teens, residents and officials will undoubtedly make good recommendations on what to put in a teen center. Their report, when it comes, really deserves a full hearing and careful consideration.
Business realities have changed profoundly in the past few decades, and this has really limited the choices young people have on socializing after school. For instance, I spent half my childhood in a town of about 7,000 in northern New Jersey. After school, we could walk or bicycle to a bowling alley, a place with pool tables (Freddy J’s on Cannonball Road), a movie theater and about a half-dozen soda shops with pinball machines and jukeboxes.
Some of those places had room to dance, and people did. Those places were all right in town. They’re all long gone, and there’s nothing like them here, either.
What’s left is hanging out, and it’s not working out. We’re way overdue to try something else.

