With construction at Windsor Plaza coming up to speed, the opening of the new Center for Orthodontic Excellence across the street, and several infrastructure improvements planned for this year, West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh has created an official economic advisory group with 10 members to foster business development in the township.
Members of the group include Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner, Director of Community Development Pat Ward, and Mayor Hsueh. The other seven members are Carlos Yepez (branch manager for PNC bank); Michelle Bromberg from Bank of America; Sandra Browne, a solo practice attorney; West Windsor residents Allegra D’Adamo and Sue Roy; Ellen Calman from a Mercer County realtor’s association, and Dan Zibman, who previously worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce.
The Economic Advisory Group has already had two meetings, May 8 and May 24, to focus on the following objectives:
– to facilitate communications with business-oriented organizations and the business community
– to secure support for new businesses from established businesses
– to provide the ability for established businesses to interact with township operations
– to attract new businesses.
The first action item the Economic Advisory Group discussed in May was building a web presence in conjunction with the township’s website.
“We need to organize all of the relevant information about the township into one or two pages online. When someone wants to research West Windsor, they should have access to all the information — state, federal, and local agencies. That is something I definitely want to have,” Hsueh says.
The mayor added that the township might hire one or two high school interns to help compile data for the website. Examples would include demographic information, school district information (including performance and rankings), accessibility to major highways and the train station, as well as historic sites, recreational places and higher educational facilities in proximity to West Windsor (including Princeton, Rutgers, Rider, and other colleges.)
Mayor Hsueh has also spoken with officials from NJ Transit about beautification of the Princeton Junction train station area, which might include improved landscaping and new signage. The group will encourage local boy and girl scout groups to adopt the area and plant flowers in the future.
Hsueh said such efforts need to be coordinated with NJ Transit. “They basically told me that all we need is to have some kind of organization agreement with them for the township to manage the beautification or landscaping. To me it will be good to make the station more attractive and inviting. But we’d need to do a lot of work.
The group has meetings scheduled for Wednesday, June 6, and Wednesday, June 20, both from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in the municipal building, room C. Meetings are open to the public.
