Current Bordentown
MAY 2021 FREE
COMMUNITYNEWS.ORG
Cranberry Park plan shelved
Art for the kids Collaborative mural is a work in progress
Company purchases old Ocean Spray site
By SAM SciArrOTTA
The start of 2021 brought some changes to the arts community in Bordentown. One of them was the launching of Bordentown Arts, an organization dedicated to creating, celebrating and raising the awareness of arts and culture in the region. With that came the onset of a new project—a massive, collaborative mural created by several local artists and painted by middle school students. It was an ambitious idea, but Leon Stanley is used to that. “I like collaborating,” he said. “I think I’m pretty good at a lot of things—jack of all trades, master of none. I’m not a visual artist. I think we’ve all seen a lot of ideas that never quite saw the light of day, no matter how great they are, because of obstacles like a lack of organization, financial issues, timing. I think this project, at least, was very much born out of and inspired by that.” The Bordentown Arts Children’s Mural Project was inspired by the turmoil of 2020—the pandemic, social unrest. The organization said in January that it hoped the project would be “a manifestation of Lincoln’s ‘the better angels of our nature.’” The piece will be made up of four 4 ft. x 8 ft. themed panels. Hamilton artist Tom See MurAL, Page 10
By SAM SciArrOTTA
Bordentown wrestler Lexi Mazzella became the program’s first woman wrestler to advance to the state championship last month. She ended the day 3-1 and earned a third place finish.
Mazzella’s season of firsts Wrestler finishes third in state By SAM SciArrOTTA
This was a season of firsts for Bordentown wrestler Lexi Mazzella. She advanced past the first round of the NJSIAA South Region girls’ wrestling tournament for the first time this year, placing second in the 135-pound division. That led to her state championship debut—the first ever by a member of the Scotties girls’
wrestling team. After a quarterfinal win followed by a loss in the semifinals, Mazzella battled back to finish the day 3-1 and placing third in her weight class. “I was nervous, of course, going into it,” she said. “Winning my first match was a big relief. Losing my second one, it just made me work harder for the next thing I could get, which was third place. From losing last year, it kind of just pushed me to work harder and push my abilities to where they could go.” And she got there—all at
once, Mazzella became the first Bordentown girls’ wrestler to compete and place in the state tournament. Not bad for someone who just started wrestling two years ago. That’s a testament to Mazzella’s work ethic, said coach Jimmy Gill. “I think that’s one of the toughest parts of this sport,” he said. “There aren’t too many sports where if you lose, you get a chance to come back. As coaches, we preach and talk about work ethic, See MAZZELLA, Page 8
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Plans for the old Ocean Spray site in Bordentown City are now up in the air after the last owner sold the 60,000-square-foot bottling plant to a Brooklyn-based developer. “Unbeknownst to the city, this happened without us being aware of it,” Mayor Jim Lynch said at the April 12 commissioner meeting. The new owner has yet to contact the city with its intentions for the site, Lynch said, but residents can be assured that the property won’t turn into a warehouse based on current zoning. “My big fear is that we don’t want another warehouse there,” said one resident at the meeting. “What kind of planning is going to go into that property? Is it going to end up being a petri dish for tractor trailers?” “That’s one of the nice things about how we purchased this years ago when we bought the property,” Lynch said. “Somebody has to do something. It’s a redevelopment zone. It was approved for 50 percent residential and 50 percent commercial. The actual property itself, warehousing, no.” Lynch also said the city is addressing the current state of the property, which has essentially turned into a truck See SITE, Page 6
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