By Frank Mustac, Special Writer
HOPEWELL TOWNHIP — A facility to train employees with special needs to work at convenience stores is being proposed near the intersection of Route 31 South and Denow Road.
Mark Iorio, president of The Mega Group business consulting company in Hamilton, has helped organize what he describes as a “group of local citizens” who would like to see the training facility added to a proposed Quick Chek combined convenience store and gas station.
The Hopewell Township Planning Board back in October 2014 denied an application to build the Quick Chek, but Mr. Iorio, who is one of several private investors interested in the project, said he is hoping the board will reconsider if training for individuals requiring assistance for medical, mental or psychological disabilities is incorporated in the plan.
Mr. Iorio said he became more aware of the challenges workers with special needs face after speaking to a business colleague with a working-age son who is on the autism spectrum.
The colleague, Mr. Iorio said, told him “how difficult it is for his son to not only land a job, but to maintain it,” especially in working environments where managers and fellow employees do not understand what his son is dealing with.
An impressive list of heads of organizations in the area that help people with special needs were informed about the training facility idea. Mr. Iorio said he contacted Peter Bell, president and CEO of Eden Autism Services in Princeton; Steve Cook, executive director of The ARC Mercer; Tim Doherty, executive director of Project Freedom; and Vernon Long, CEO and president of Opportunities For All.
“We had a meeting, and we had a long discussion about what this would look like,” Mr. Iorio said. “We then, obviously, approached Quick Chek.”
Mr. Iorio said he presented the training facility idea to the Hopewell Township Planning Board in late July.
The facility, he said, would take up a dedicated area within the footprint of the proposed convenience store building and, essentially, be a mini version of the store itself with a checkout counter with barcode price scanners, shelves for stocking products the store typically sells and, possibly, a food preparation station to practice making sandwiches the store offers.
Mr. Iorio said he envisions each specials-needs employee attending training accompanied by a caseworker. The facility, he said, also could provide training for store managers on how to “interact with the people who are being trained.”
“That’s part of it as well,” Mr. Iorio said.
The property at the intersection of Route 31 South and Denow Road, where the Quick Chek is being proposed, is located in what is called an SI (special industrial) zoning district. The property is about 9.4 acres in size, which includes a house of worship, Har Sinai Temple, according to a Planning Board document.
The developer, First Choice Plaza LLC, which filed the use variance that was denied last year, proposed to subdivide the property and use about 4 acres in connection with a proposed roughly 5,500-square-foot convenience store and a 5,000-square-foot gas station.
Within an SI zoning district, a gas station is permitted as a conditional use, but a convenience store is not.
Mr. Iorio said he would like to see the township amend its zoning ordinances to accommodate a gas station with a convenience store that includes a training facility for special-needs workers.
“It hasn’t been approved yet, but, hopefully, they’ll all say, ‘Yes, the zoning ordinances have to be changed; let’s do that,’” he said.
