COMMUNITY CLEANUP
Trenton Wilbur section cleanup targets Greg Grant’s former childhood school, Cook Elementary
TRENTON » Former NBA player Greg Grant remembers when Cook Elementary School in the city’s Wilbur section once provided quality education while promoting a clean environment.
“This is where I went to school in kindergarten through fifth grade,” he said Saturday of the former school that has since degenerated. “This is my neighborhood. I used to walk in this alley and play in this alleyway when we were kids. It’s good to see it’s being cleaned up.”
Indeed, Trenton Mayor Reed Gusciora spearheaded a cleanup initiative Saturday dedicated to removing junk from the area surrounding the former school.
“This is completely overgrown debris here,” Gusciora said as he stood on Eldon Alley that abuts South Walter Avenue. “We have the residents, they are upset. No one should have to live in these conditions.”
The mayor, other elected officials and a plethora of community volunteers participated in Saturday’s cleanup that featured the machinery and labor of city workers who chopped down weeds and branches for disposal.
In his second month in office, Gusciora is using his mayoral powers and influence in ways that differentiate him from his immediate predecessor. While Gusciora explores the possibility of transforming the former Cook School into affordable housing, former Trenton Mayor Eric Jackson had a different vision in mind for the dilapidated building at the intersection of Cuyler and Walnut avenues.
“In the East Ward we’re planning to demolish the former Cook Elementary School,” Jackson said in his 2017 State of the City address, “currently a neighborhood eyesore that’s been vacant since the ’90s.”
The Trenton Historical Society says the William G. Cook School first opened in 1891. The facility had a long history of educating students like Grant but went out of fashion as Trenton Public Schools lost interest in the property. The Trenton Board of Education in 2005 sold the Cook School property to the city for $1, records show.
Saturday’s Wilbur section cleanup came four weeks after city officials organized a street sweeper parade up Broad Street in a July 21 endeavor that also beautified the landscape of privately owned property in the West Ward.
“If we are all working together,” Gusciora said Saturday, “we can clean up the city and create that sense of community that we all want.”
The mayor said he will rally the city “to keep going” in the direction of cleanliness. “We’ll do it one neighborhood at a time,” he said, “one block at a time.”
East Ward Councilman Joseph Harrison worked up a deep sweat Saturday morning into the afternoon as he personally removed trash and overgrown vegetation from his ward. “Cook School has been like this for 30 years,” he said of the dilapidated vacant building specked with broken windows and boarded up sections. “If it can be saved, let’s save it.”
Opposing demolition as an option, Harrison talked about the possibility of turning the old school site into a senior housing complex or
community recreation center. It could take months before the city decides what to do with the property, but Harrison said it was “good to see people from the community come together to build a brighter future.”
Dozens of cleanup volunteers enjoyed freshly grilled hotdogs and hamburgers Saturday afternoon. Some even held signs warning illegal dumpers that discarding debris into city streets and alleyways will result in prosecution and penalties.
Jennifer Williams, municipal chair of the Trenton Republican Committee, took part in the cleanup alongside Gusciora, a proud Democrat. “It’s pretty awesome to be here,” Williams said, “and see so much positive action.”
Much of the 7.5-squaremile capital city remained full of garbage-filled nooks and crannies Saturday, but the organized removal of junk and debris from Eldon Alley was “a start,” Grant said.
“It’s a positive thing,” said the 5-foot-7 Trenton native who got drafted in the 1989 NBA draft following stellar careers at Trenton High and the college formerly known as Trenton State. “There’s nothing negative about trying to better the city.”