Tour Offers Glimpse Into Blackwood's Future

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — Several local and state leaders recently toured Blackwood to provide a sneak peek of how the municipality may look in the future.

The tour came after a recent survey showed more than 75 percent of Blackwood residents were not pleased with the dining and shopping options in that municipality.

Among the upcoming projects discussed during the tour were:

• Overseeing the design and completion of a mural that displays 300 years of Blackwood's history
• Turning the former First National Bank Building into a community arts and events venue
• Continuing the rehabilitation of Harwan Park to support its hosting of a weekly Farmer's Market
• Making improvements to occupied building's facades and signs
• Placing artwork created by Camden County College students in the windows of vacant businesses

Grants from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs' Neighborhood Preservation Plan, the department's Community Capital Needs Grant and matching funds from the township will help support these projects, the municipality said.

"Our South Jersey communities are transforming state dollars into fantastic projects that will benefit our neighborhoods, without increasing the property tax burden," State Assembly Majority Leader Louis D. Greenwald, one of the state leaders who took the tour, told Patch.

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