Two years into his first term on the West Windsor Township Council, George Borek now finds himself council president.
His most important goal: keeping the township thriving with opportunity, so that the residents’ children, including his own, will want to remain in West Windsor and call it their home in the future.##M:[more]##
Borek, elected in 2007, moved to Wellington Drive in June 2001, with his wife, Kimberly, and two children, both of whom attend Maurice Hawk Elementary School. His wife is originally from Princeton; her family has been in Princeton since the depression-era, where they owned a shop on Witherspoon Street. Borek grew up in Jersey City, where he joined the fire department, and has 27 years as a firefighter under his belt.
“It was a different upbringing,” says Borek, whose mother raised three boys and an older sister until his father died and she entered the workforce.
Borek says he came to West Windsor as a political novice but eventually gained an understanding of the political scene. “To understand how government works, it’s been truly an eye-opening experience for me,” he says.
Now, as he heads into the first meeting of the year on Monday, July 13, during which matters pertaining to redevelopment — the hiring of a redevelopment attorney and approval of a budget to move forward with redevelopment — are on the agenda, Borek is looking to capitalize on last year’s progress, which resulted in council approval of a redevelopment plan for the 350-acre Princeton Junction train station redevelopment area.
Redevelopment. “The council last year did its part — we worked tirelessly through months and many meetings to come to a plan,” says Borek. “It’s not the best plan, and it’s not the worst plan. It’s still a work in progress.”
But now that it is completed, Borek says he is looking for the state agencies to step in and offer their help and support. “Redevelopment shouldn’t cost taxpayers any money,” he says. “It should be something borne by the developers and state agencies. We’re a keeper of the train station, so again, we have a commodity. We’re here being a good neighbor, facilitating 9,”000 people a day who use the Princeton Junction train station. Everyone needs to help in this endeavor and come to the table.
“We want to make a downtown area and give our residents what they’ve been looking for,” he added. “Outside of that, we still need the entities to come to the table.”
Borek won election as part of a slate with Councilman Charles Morgan and former councilman Will Anklowitz, who opposed a plan calling for 1,”000 housing units. As was the case in the beginning stages of the redevelopment process, particularly with regard to the number of housing units in the plan, much contention and controversy infiltrated township meetings on the subject.
Does he expect any similar issues to arise this year as the process moves forward? Not specifically. Borek says he feels the council spent a considerable amount of time addressing residents’ concerns, including those coming from various township organizations. But, he says, “you never know what’s going to be down the road.”
For example, a developer may come forth with specific plans that may raise a lot of questions among township residents. “The most important aspect I can bring is working with my colleagues on council and the administration in trying to get those questions answered for the public,” Borek says. “The public has to feel confident, they have to feel good about it, and they have to feel like it will benefit them. I just want to help facilitate the process and allow people to weigh in if there is something of magnitude that needs to be addressed.”
Route 571. Another important issue to Borek is the future of an Acme-less Route 571. “With the loss of Acme, I don’t want it to be a ghost town,” says Borek.
There is still no word yet on the future of the Acme site. The food store closed this spring. Since then, shopkeepers in the plaza are uncertain what enterprise will replace the Acme, and no one seems to be sure who exactly owns the center.
The Dreher Group, a Princeton-based commercial developer that also owns the Rite Aid Pharmacy site across the road from the Acme, has reportedly been under contract to buy the entire shopping center — formally known as Windsor Plaza — from the Courtney family, the original owners of the center. Family members have not commented on the matter. Neither has Richard Dreher, of the Dreher Group, who declines to return calls and E-mails seeking information. And Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh says he has not heard any news yet regarding whether the deal went through.
The rumor is, however, that Dreher is looking to bring a high-end Kings market to the center, if the purchase is finalized.
The Dreher Group has control of another property in town. It received Planning Board approval to construct a Rite Aid on the corner of Route 571 and Cranbury Road. The site plan calls for a 14,”673 square foot Rite Aid, and an additional 6,”000 feet of retail space that includes a coffee shop and a restaurant. The council sent a letter in May to the developer asking for demolition of the vacant buildings on the site if there is no ground broken by the end of 2009 on the site.
“Rite Aid has not even started putting a shovel in the ground,” says Borek. “What I see is fewer and fewer people going through that area. When Acme was there, it brought some vibrancy.”
Borek says he has already spoken with the mayor to try to address the problem and says that the county has been working on improving the road structure and sidewalks. “We need to step that up and start doing our part to try to attract other people to come in there.”
He points to Chase Bank, which attracted an oral surgeon’s office in the space above it. What he has been hearing from various professionals is that “this is a good place to attract the professionals,” Borek says. “With the new hospital coming, they need a new place to have their offices.”
Borek says he believes the township can cater to that need, but the township and county need to do their parts in making this gateway area attractive to those professionals. “If people see that we’re actively engaged in it, and not just leaving it by the wayside, it might be enough to stir interest and development in that overlay area,” Borek says. “That’s our gateway to Princeton Junction. We need to do everything we can to make sure that it stays vibrant and that we don’t let it fall.”
Taxes. While high property taxes may seem like a recurring issue year in and year out, Borek says it is because the issue is just that important.
He says he will do his part in taking a close look at the budget this year, and says the council should be able to fully vet all the areas of the township’s spending plan by engaging in the earlier discussions on the budget, another issue the council is scheduled to discuss on Monday, July 13. During this meeting, the council may add meetings to its calendar that will be held as early as August so that it can get a head start on budget discussions for the 2010 fiscal year.
One area Borek says he will give special attention to is shared services agreements, and how those opportunities could be maximized. He also wants to find ways to maintain and replenish the township’s surplus. “We’re not backfilling it, and we don’t have new ratables or new sources of taxation to do that backfilling. That’s something that’s very important, very high on my list.”
He says he will also be looking at ways to offer residents the same, if not more services, for the taxes they pay.
“I don’t think it’s the numbers you look at,” Borek says specifically. “How can we get the cost of our workforce down? How can we do things in a better fashion? Do we have overlap? Are there other things we can do? We won’t know until we start having those discussions.”
Background In Emergency Management. While Borek has experience as a 27-year veteran of the fire department in Jersey City and is able to relate to police officers, firefighters, and other emergency responders, he says it is not different from the specialties other council members bring to the dais.
“I’m just a person who understands what they do,” says Borek. “By no means am I a professional. The professionals are Police Chief Joe Pica and the chiefs of the fire companies. They have the responsibility of guiding their men and women in these instances.”
He does admit that he can ask them questions that other people may not know to ask when discussing matters that pertain to their departments, but it is nothing other than bringing a different perspective. “Charlie’s good with the finances; Heidi [Kleinman] was good with the architectural matters; Linda [Geevers] understands the schools,” he explained.
His knowledge, however, in emergency services may prove valuable in a post-9/11 world, with the redevelopment of the train station and nation-wide threats to homeland security, including to the nation’s transportation hubs. “I’m cognizant of it, and I want to make sure that when discussions on redevelopment occur, and we have developers come in there, we address the concerns of the firefighters, police officers, and emergency responders to make sure their voice is heard.”
Keeping a Vibrant Town. Borek says he is motivated by his children — an idea that he says some officials may lose sight of when sitting up at the dais.
Recently, two residents on his block sold their homes and are moving out, and Borek does not want to see families move out of a township he says offers great opportunities. “How do we make West Windsor where it’s affordable for them?” he says. “We have the best of the best, but how do we preserve that, and how do we give the opportunities we have to our children?”
Redevelopment and taxes, he says, go hand-in-hand in helping to solve this dilemma, as more ratables will be brought in to help offset taxes, while also “giving the community a vibrancy we so ideally need.”
He says when he took his seat at the dais two years ago, there was much contention around town with regard to redevelopment. But like anything else, people began to realize its importance. He says he has learned through talking with residents at sporting events for his children or being out and about in the community that they really want a downtown.
Borek says he always asks people what they feel is the one issue that is the most significant in town. “Unequivocally, it’s redevelopment,” he says. “People want a place they can call home. We are at the crossroads where we can do that. Regardless of who sits up there on the dais at the end, we all want to get to the point of giving West Windsor what they want.”
And in keeping that goal in mind, officials can also keep the children in mind, he says. “There are people listening, and there are people out there that want to do the right thing,” he said. “In any event, we’re moving in the right direction, and that’s what’s important.”
