ETC held its August Community Meeting on the 31st in a hybrid format, over Zoom and at the East Trenton Center. We had a large amount of residents and community leaders come out to this month’s meeting, and we discussed a number of exciting events and programs ETC held this month.

Most pressingly, we urged residents to join the City Council Meeting on September 1st to voice their support for the Complete Streets Ordinance, which will be on the docket and heard for the final time. This Ordinance would mandate a safe street design for all projects and create a Safe Streets for All Committee to allow for further public input and discussion. If you would like to voice your support for this ordinance, please click here to join the meeting at 5:30 PM on Thursday, September 1st!

We also listed to resident input and suggestions for our NRTC 2023 Project Grant, which determines what services and programs ETC will continue to fund and what new programs and services should be looked into. Thank you to all the many residents who voiced their suggestions, it is crucial that our services reflect the needs of the East Trenton Community that we work and live in!

We also took some time to announce some exciting success stories behind a few of our programs and focuses. First, the first Business Startup Grant was approved this August! This was a new grant program (on top of the Business Improvement Grant) that we started earlier this year, and are so excited to see it in action helping improve businesses and local entrepreneurs here in the neighborhood! Secondly. we had about 50 applicatiosn submitted for our Small Home Repair Program by the deadline! It’s amazing to see so many residents benefit and take advantage of this program in East Trenton, and we will be going through the process of looking at, holding comittee hearings about, and and approving these applications in the coming weeks.

Another exciting announcement is that a contractor has been selected for the renovation of the East Trenton Library, and construction should begin in mid-to-late September! We have been reviewing a few contractors for this process for some time, and are happy to continue moving forward with the restoration of this historic library, we ETC has been working on for several years now. We are planning a groundbreaking ceremony for October, so please check in here and on our socials @theeasttrentoncollaborative for more info on this as we get closer to the date!

Lastly, we discussed the current progress for a few properties under our Home Ownership and Rehab Program. A family was able to close and move into one of the properties on Hart Ave last month, and another property has been put on the market, with a Trenton family already in the process of closing! We are also hoping another one of our properties on Hart Ave will be market-ready in the coming months, and are working on two mixed-use properties on N. Clinton Ave as well. We are always looking to acquire more vacant properties from the City of Trenton to continue to promote homeownership opportunities in the community.

Make sure to check in with us for our next community meeting on September 28th to see what’s happening in the neighborhood!