Muschal never shy about offering his view

Never one for mincing words, South Ward Councilman George Muschal made mincemeat of Mercer Medical Center property owner Hemant Mehta, in charge of the 446 Bellevue LLC eyesore.

“That guy’s no hero. He’s a zero,” Muschal said. “My main goal was to run street sweepers through parts of the city. I had nothing to do with the cleanup of that hospital. I’m completely against us cleaning up after other people, especially privately-owned businesses. He’s lucky I didn’t spend time with him.”

“And as far as clean up volunteers taking photos with Revolutionary War reenactors or Mariachi bands playing music? That’s not what I’m about. My main concern is cleaning up this city. Period. Forget all the bells and whistles. We’ve got to get tough on people who trash this city.”

The councilman’s comments about Mercer Medical Center mirrored Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes who lambasted Mehta.

“People are supposed to keep up their property,” Hughes told The Trentonian as he watched volunteers do Mehta’s dirty work. “The owner is out here. He should be keeping this place cleaned up. They should be held responsible.”

Muschal offered a slight jab at Mayor Reed Gusciora who offered a photo op for volunteers participating in Saturday’s citywide clean up initiative. “Hey, I can’t knock the guy too much. He’s supported my efforts to make Trenton look better,” Muschal noted.

Muschal, a retired Trenton police officer turned city councilman, talked about several topics as we drove several blocks following his arrival at the South Broad St. building collapse in Hamilton Twp. He expressed disappointment about police not stepping out of their vehicles to engage prostitutes, drunks and other quality of life violators.

“They got to get out of their vehicles. They just have to,” Muschal said. Informed that hookers seemed to be out in great numbers on Sunday, particularly on South Clinton Ave., Muschal added his experience.

“Man, you should see them up on South Broad St. Police are getting calls about this from residents and sometimes they don’t even respond. It’s disappointing, especially being a former cop, to know that police will not take on all of the hookers, drinkers and people who beg for money in traffic.”

“We have to get these people off our streets and out of our parks. They make this city look really bad. Enough is enough.”