By Linda Seida, Staff Writer
LAMBERTVILLE — A South Main Street neighborhood is seeking remedies for “quality-of-life issues,” according to Acting Clerk Cynthia Ege.
They met at the Justice Center last week with officials who represent Lambertville, the Hunterdon County prosecutor’s office, West Amwell Township and the state Parks Department.
The inclusion at the meeting of West Amwell police and members of the Township Committee, a prosecutor’s office investigator and park representatives stems from fears for public safety after a Lambertville woman was severely beaten July 1 in West Amwell on the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park towpath.
The woman was able to get away, but her assailant has not been found. The investigation is continuing, led by the prosecutor’s office and supported by local police.
The prosecutor’s office has described the unknown assailant as a Hispanic man between 20 and 30 years old. But city officials say it is not an “immigrant issue,” and emphasized that it is, instead, a “quality-of-life issue.”
Police Director Bruce Cocuzza said he made it plain that “we take action based on the conduct. Period. End of it. I’m not attributing one group as being better or worse than any other group as far as causing problems.”
Even graffiti — often identified elsewhere as gang-related — is nothing in Lambertville but “the handiwork of homegrown local kids,” Director Cocuzza said. There is no evidence of gang activity in the city, according to Director Cocuzza and Ms. Ege.
”The distinction was made it was a quality-of-life issue,” Ms. Ege said. “The residents really tried hard to keep the focus on quality-of-life issues.”
Investigators were addressing safety issues before residents aired their worries, Director Cocuzza said. “We continue to concentrate patrols, particularly on the towpath,” he said.
Although Mayor David Del Vecchio, Director Cocuzza and Ms. Ege all said the focus of the meeting Aug. 2 remained on “quality-of-life issues,” the meeting with numerous officials was requested by a South Main Street woman who complained about immigrants last month at a City Council meeting.
The woman complained of day laborers gathering, landscaping trucks in the neighborhood and overcrowding in suspected illegal boardinghouses. The city has since investigated the rental units and found the complaints of overcrowding to be unfounded.
The city barred the press from the meeting last week because residents expressed a fear of retaliation, and a feeling of being intimidated by a press presence into not publicly asking their questions, according to Ms. Ege. The city was able to close the meeting to the press, because no quorum of the council was present, and no action was being taken, she said.
Because residents requested improvements to the landlord ordinance that governs rental units and the number of tenants permissible, the city plans to introduce an amendment to the ordinance Monday that “strengthens the language” of the ordinance, Mayor Del Vecchio said.
Other complaints raised last week were about more mundane and perennial issues such as parking and speeding. Some complaints were made by residents of Swan and Wilson streets, Ms. Ege said.
Speed humps may be installed on Swan and Wilson streets to slow traffic, she said. “Speed humps are an easy issue,” Ms. Ege said. “It’s not expensive.”

