The Hammonton Gazette 07/22/15 Edition | Page 6

Page 6 • Wednesday, July 22, 2015 • The Hammonton Gazette

The Hammonton Gazette
“The Paper of Record”
Gabriel j. donio, Publisher
Gina rullo, Editor-in-Chief

dan russoman, Sports Editor
benny mendez, Staff Artist

marysusan hoffman, paul j. macrie iv,
michael hozik, donna brown, joseph bruno,
brittany mauro, Lauren bucci,
Lauren crescenzo, Staff

The Hammonton Gazette is located at 233 bellevue ave. to reach a staff
member, call 704-1940 or fax at 704-1938. the mailing address is p.o. box
1228, hammonton, nj 08037.

editoriaLs

The Hammonton Gazette is published Wednesdays, by The Hammonton Gazette, Inc. Copyright © 2015. All
rights reserved. ISSN 1093-6181

swim championships

From July 31 to August 2, the Suburban Swim Association
Championships will be held at the Hammonton Swim Club. Thousands
of people are expected during the three-day event.
Restaurants and shops in town should take note that there will be
more people around during those three days. Parking in the area of the
swim club, which is located between Dunkin’ Donuts on the White
Horse Pike (Route 30) and Berwyn Avenue, will be taken up by the
many visitors — so be prepared to hunt for spots on the days of the
swim championships.
This event is a first for the Hammonton Swim Club, and will be drawing people to Hammonton from around the region. It is another opportunity for our town to showcase itself as we continue to grow our
tourism industry. Restaurants, shops and the entire community benefit
from the outside dollars that come into Hammonton. As the food truck
festival showed, an overflow crowd can be a good thing if you have
places where the people, and their money, can flow.
Again, we also note that Hammonton Lake Park will be filled with
visitors from throughout New Jersey as well on July 30 for the New
Jersey Little League State Finals. It is another first for Hammonton, as
the Hammonton Little League, which is home to the 1949 Little League
World Series Champions, will be playing host for the first time.
In recent years, the soccer tournaments held at Tuckahoe Turf Farm
have become a major draw for athletes and parents. It’s great to see
additional youth sports like swimming and baseball also bringing people to Hammonton.
We wish the Hammonton Swim Club and the Hammonton Little
League the best of luck with these two major events, which will bring
tourism and prestige to our town.

Looking up(town)

Periodically, we like to take note of signs of revitalization throughout
the town’s four commercial districts of downtown, uptown, Little Italy
and the business park. In recent months we have seen a lot of movement
in uptown, which had been in need of renewal.
Now, the work is beginning to become visible in the uptown district,
which includes all businesses along the White Horse Pike (Route 30)
from Winslow Twp. to Mullica Twp. and Route 206 from Hammonton
to Shamong.
At Sail Lake, new roofs were being put on last week, and new
entranceways on the first floors facing the lake were taking shape. New
tenants are being added to existing tenants, and the professional center
is solidifying as a key component of the uptown district.
Hammonton Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare has received
high marks from the state, according to leadership at the sub-acute care
facility. Now, according to administration, the facility will be receiving
renovations.
At the Kessler Medical Arts Complex, dumpsters are being filled with
the remnants of the former hospital, to make way for a new, 16,000square-foot surgicare center, according to the owners of Kessler. Those
owners are also working to bring a 60,000- to 70,000-square-foot subacute care facility to the lake side of the complex, which will have
approximately 60 beds. What’s even better: officials at Hammonton
Center for Rehabilitation and Care say the new sub-acute care facility
will complement, not compete with, their facility.
These three projects, along with the recent renovation at Brother’s
Pizza, the establishment of Ideal Blend antique cooperative and many
more projects show that uptown is on the move. We look forward to
chronicling more of its successes, and those of all four of the local business districts.

to the editor:

Letters to the editor

As a former Hammonton resident for nearly 40 years, I always enjoy the arrival of the first blueberries in the markets every year.
I carefully search through the boxes of berries seeking out the best blueberries in the world, “grown
in Hammonton,” the Blueberry Capital of the World!
My task has become more and more difficult every year because so many berries are in the markets
marked only as Jersey Fresh. To make it even more confusing, some of those berries have packa v