New Jersey mayor to share success story
Advance correspondent BRISTOL BOROUGH - Even as time approaches for the planned “Sharing Success” program scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Bristol Riverside Theater, the “Raising the Bar’’ committee has been busy setting Bristol Borough’s economic goals, partnering with the Bucks County Planning Commission and Grundy Library researchers, and communicating with borough council.
The goal of various business men and women, professionals, lawmakers and residents is to “elevate the expectations we all share for ourselves, our town, and our government,” said committee member Amy McIlvaine.
The “Sharing Success” event will feature Collingswood, N.J. Mayor Jim Maley, who will outline measures he helped implement in the south Jersey borough that sparked an economic renaissance of the town. Collingswood is much like Bristol Borough, with its blue collar roots, its walkable downtown, and its accessible public transportation.
Like Bristol, Collingswood has a diverse population and a mix of historic homes and more modest dwellings built for workers in previous eras. Maley will outline the opportunities Collingswood embraced and how the borough leveraged its assets to its own advantage. Once declining in population and economic opportunities, it is, today, among one of the “Ten Most Transformed Communities in America,” according to the American Planning Association.
One gem of an accomplishment of Bristol’s Raising the Bar committee is the introduction of a draft of the “Desired State” that will be presented to the council for review and approval.
“A desired state is the vision component of the project. xIt outlinesz what Bristol will look like within a certain number of years,” said project facilitator Bill Pezza. “It is important to complete this component because in effect it becomes the set of goals we are shooting for.”
Pezza said the draft was the result of intense labor and considerable debate, and he believes it resulted in a plan that “will be ambitious but well received.”
Borough Council President Ralph DiGuiseppe said that he sees each successful effort as a building block that, added to the others, will create a positive environment, and attract money for projects.
“We have a great track record of securing funding for borough projects. I know that the more we can convince outside decision makers that we have our planning act together _ and show that a project we want to fund is part of a broader scheme _ the more success we’ll have,” DiGuiseppe said.
Tickets for “Sharing Success” and a wine and cheese reception are $10 and can be purchased at Mignoni Jewelry, 200 Mill Street; Great ID’s by Anne, Radcliffe and Mulberry streets; and at the borough tax office, Pond and Mulberry streets, all in Bristol Borough.