Last month, I had the privilege of sitting down for a simple community meal of soup and bread organized by the Hopewell Borough Council of Churches. It was great connecting with old friends and making some new ones from across the area, and even better for that connection to be in-person after so many years of needing to find alternatives.
As we start 2024, I’m excited for the connection our Borough Council and our new administrator are making with our community, as we all work together to hit the ground running and make progress on some of our most important goals as a town.
In that spirit of working together, I’m excited to highlight one of those goals and thank Hopewell Township and Mercer County for helping us on an enormous piece of positive change in our town.
In the coming weeks, you’ll see signs and hear all about lowering the speed limit on Broad Street to 25 mph, end to end, with a new slower 35 mph buffer area in the township as you approach the Borough. Working with the Hopewell Township Police Department, we will be rolling out staged education and enforcement of the new rules this spring.
As council president Krista Weaver did at their Feb. 22 meeting in Trenton, I too would like to thank the Mercer County Board of Commissioners, county engineer Basit Muzaffar and his staff, and county executive Dan Benson for moving this change forward. I also want to thank our volunteers on the Hopewell Borough Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Advisory Committee, the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association, Chief Rosso of the HTPD and his team, and the township’s governing body and staff for helping to make this change a reality for our town.
While indeed significant, the speed limit for us is just a part of our long-term goals of protecting pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users in our borough and creating a more walkable, livable community for our families, residents and downtown shoppers. Look for these changes soon, and many more incremental safety improvements as we continue our fight to make our Borough a safer place.
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Next up on our change list, I hope you all join me in welcoming our new administrator Doug Walker to Hopewell Borough. Doug joined us at the end of last year and has been doing a fantastic job on all fronts, chiefly important to me and Borough Council, being responsive and accessible to connect with our residents and businesses.
You’ll find his contact information on our website or you can find him in-person at 88 East Broad Street most days during regular business hours (and some Saturdays too!).
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The final piece of change for this month’s column is a new way to connect with our town. Beginning this past January our Administrator and I have been holding drop-in office hours every other Wednesday at 1 p.m. and the second Saturday of each month at 9 a.m. for area residents to join us at Borough Hall for complaints, comments or conversation about our town. No appointments needed! Exact times and schedule (and Doug’s contact info) are available on the borough’s website.
While 2024 welcomes in some change, one thing will certainly stay the same: our Borough Council and I welcome you all to connect with us, whether it’s the first Thursday of (most) every month at our meetings, or any day in between that works for you.
Ryan Kennedy is the mayor of Hopewell Borough, which provided this content.
Ryan Kennedy.,
