Public safety, youth programs and economic development were the primary themes for Interim Mayor Raymond Giacobbe, Jr., in his first State of the City address on Thursday night.

In remarks that lasted some 20 minutes, after about an hour of performances, presentations and awards at Hamilton Stage, Giacobbe touched on a variety of initiatives planned for 2018. The former 6th Ward councilman was appointed in January to serve the remaining year of former Mayor Samson Steinman’s term. The Democrat is expected to seek a full four-year term when filing petitions for the June primary are due April 2.

The full remarks can be found here but among the goals related to redevelopment for 2018 mentioned by Giacobbe were:

• By the end of the year, cameras will be installed downtown that are linked directly to the Police Department;
• A pilot program to provide free Internet downtown and encourage shared work spaces throughout the city;
• A roundtable featuring business leaders and academics called Rahway 2030 (hey, that sounds familiar) to address the city’s future;
• Shared bike and car lanes downtown to make it conductive to getting around the city more safely.

The Rahway Center Partnership (RCP) — the predecessor to the Rahway Arts and Business Partnership (RABP) — started a pilot program to install downtown security cameras about a decade ago. How this new initiative might differ or whatever became of the RCP effort I’m not sure, but I’ll see if I can find out.

UDPATED, March 21: City Administrator Cherron Rountree said between 25 and 30 cameras are expected to be installed. The partnership may have discussed it years ago but she said she was unaware of any discussions or plans that were made. “To our knowledge, this initiative has never before been completed downtown and is a new program.”

As far as updates on specific development projects in the works, the mayor touched on a few of them, all of which have been covered on the blog of late:

• The Willows, a 58-unit/four-story affordable housing complex geared toward artists, is expected to open next month on Central Avenue.
• The Gramercy, a 42-unit/five-story rental development on East Cherry Street, featuring a coffee shop in the ground-floor retail space, should begin leasing this year.
• Construction is expected to begin next month on a 219-unit/five-story rental development at the site of the former Center Circle on Main Street.
• Construction also is expected to begin this year on Main & Monroe, a two-building, 208-unit/five-story development along Main Street and also will extend Monroe Street through to East Cherry Street.

“There’s always more work to be done and I look forward to rolling up my sleeves,” Giacobbe said, adding that initiatives are all geared toward promoting growth and drawing new residents.

The mayor also talked about expanding programs at the Recreation Center as well as improvements to recreational facilities. Construction will begin this year on Madden Field, a project that has collected some $1 million in grant funding, and create a multi-purpose complex featuring two baseball fields and a football field. Union County also will begin improvements to complete two turf soccer fields at Greenfield Park.

Giacobbe said the city welcomed more than a dozen new businesses last year and among the new ones expected in 2018 are a restaurant on East Cherry Street, a spa downtown, and a hospitality training center. He closed his remarks sharing a fable called Acres of Diamonds, and that Rahway could be its own acres of diamonds, if all participate, work and use its collective wisdom cultivate the city.

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After receiving the Senior of the Year Award, Joseph Horling, Sr. took a few minutes to regale attendees with stories about growing up in Rahway. Born in 1920, Horling is a lifelong Rahway resident whose family owned Anthony’s Bike and Key Shop in the 1920s. His father sponsored bicycle races along Elizabeth Avenue, racing to the Linden border and back.

Horling said he knows Giacobbe’s father and grandfather — who built the building his family lived in — as well as his great-grandfather.

Horling recalled when the trolley used to come through Rahway and it would switch in front of the arts center on Irving Street, where trolleys from Westfield could pass on their way to Perth Amboy. “The tracks were a pain to get around,” he quipped.

Saturday was the big shopping day when he was growing up, with people from neighboring towns like Woodbridge and Carteret converging downtown. Horling said he’s seen the city grow and contract over the years. There was a Ford dealer across Irving Street and the Empire Theater next to the Masonic Temple played silent movies, he said.