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St. John’s pastor celebrates 40 years
Bowling veteran
18-year-old starts his own clothing line called BALK
Rev. Vincent Jackson believes church and politics do mix
By Scott morGan Here’s something an 18-yearold wants you to know: You don’t actually have to get old. Oh, you’ll age. You might be on this earth for 80, 90, 100 spins around the sun, but you don’t have to grow up and get old. Shaheed Waddy, 18, said as much to Donna Paris in the first few seconds of his interview with her, on a video for Paris Hair and Beauty Supplies’ YouTube channel, in August. Paris Hair and Beauty’s role in Waddy’s life is one of two things that will be explained in more depth below. The other is BALK. The two are related. Naturally shy and yet effortlessly charismatic, Waddy is a musician, performer and clothing line entrepreneur with a whimsical sense of humor that folks with a lot of laps around the sun tend to find funnier than middle-aged people. At 18 and newly done with high school (he was homeschooled by his mother in Ewing) he is already a veteran rap performer who has played on stages around New Jersey, Pennsylvania and London, England, where his mother is from, by way of Jamaica. See WADDY, Page 15
By Scott morGan
Amelia Baffuto is one of the Blue Devils girls’ bowling team’s two four-year players. She is pictured during a 4-0 win against Pennsauken at Slocum’s Bowling Center on Dec. 13, 2018. For more on the team, turn to Page 12. (Photo by Suzette J. Lucas.)
Residents tire of TWW turmoil By roB antHeS
ranthes@communitynews.org
Coming off the worst year in its history, Trenton Water Works received notice of three more state violations in January, continuing a cycle the utility has spent months trying to break. Meanwhile, tired of questioning TWW’s ability to fulfill its purpose, residents and suburban towns served by the utility have begun resorting to other measures to ensure they have clean
drinking water. Trenton Water Works has insisted the water coming from its system always has been safe. TWW’s management says while progress has been made in correcting deficiencies in staffing and procedures, it continues to struggle to meet state Department of Environmental Protection requirements. All three of the January violations, for example, were due to clerical or administrative issues such as missed deadlines, not new questions
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about water quality. “State agencies have a tendency to focus too much on the process and not on the final result...What you want as an end result of the DEP regulating TWW is high-quality water,” said Shing-Fu Hsueh, Trenton Water Works’ new director and a former DEP water-quality expert. “What the process needs to focus on is technical procedures and hiring enough people with the expertise to carry them out. Instead, their See WATER, Page 6
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Vincent Jackson the Marine, the Vietnam veteran, the guy with the bachelor’s degree in business management, never would have guessed he’d be Rev. Jackson, pastor of Ewing’s St. John’s Baptist Church for 40 years. But here we are, just a few months past his official anniversary as the pastor of this 108-year-old congregation. And the first thing Jackson learned over all these years at the helm of a church is this: “Church is politics.” It’s also business. But first and foremost, a church is a political entity in its community. “If you don’t think a church is political,” Jackson says, “just try to get elected to something around here.” He understands there’s a lot to unpack in that statement. In essence, what he means is that a church is a major social institution in a community. It’s a gathering place for large numbers of people who talk about what’s going on in that community. So if you’re looking to get voted into a public office in a town that has a lot of gathering places, you’d betSee JACKSON, Page 16
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