The ‘Allentown Initiative’

Corky Danch, Allentown
   You are hereby invited to attend a forum. The purpose of this gathering is to create and orchestrate for the future of our community. If it is to become a better place for ourselves and our posterity, it is we who must make it so.
   We live in a place called Allentown/Upper Freehold. It is unclear if this is one place, two places or many places. There are many people and many homes and businesses but it is called “a” community. Is the extent of our community defined by its physical bounds or by some other more personal measurement?
   What defines Allentown/Upper Freehold really? Historically, Allentown was/is a small village that sprang up around a grist mill that was built in 1706 (that’s before George Washington was born!). Its purpose was to grind the wheat grown on the surrounding farms into flour. This was an activity that drew others to the place, people to fix the wagons, people to teach the kids, people, people, people, people to build the houses and so on. It all had purpose. What purpose do we have now? Are you satisfied with our place being characterized as a “bedroom community,” a place where people come to sleep and go off somewhere else to work? Yes, we have changed with the changes but remember, the changes keep coming. So the question before you is simply this: What should we do?
   This will be a roundtable discussion, where your vision of the future of our community can be shared, molded, morphed and folded into the ideas and visions of your neighbor. Who knows, we just might come up with something; it’s worth a try. If you accept this invitation, please respond with an e-mail to [email protected] at which time you will be given more information.
Corky Danch
Allentown