Post by Marc LeVine on Aug 17, 2006 14:03:27 GMT -5
In Memory of Fred Sanders
Pocket park’s dedication
will honor Fred Sanders
By dick metzgar
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD — When it came to promoting the borough, no one played more of a front-and-center role than Fred Sanders.
This was most recently evident when Sanders was the business advocate of the Freehold Center Partnership from his appointment to the position in January 1995 until his death in January 1997 at the age of 62.
Among his other accomplishments was helping the Center Players community theater group get a foothold in the county seat.
In honor of Sanders’ efforts on behalf of the community, partnership administrators will dedicate a new pocket park on the corner of South and Mechanic streets in his memory at 1 p.m. Jan. 27. The Center Players will host a tribute to Sanders in their new permanent home on the corner of South and Mechanic streets, directly across from the park.
A stone memorial to be placed in the park will be dedicated in Sanders’ honor.
"Fred was interested in bringing cultural arts to the borough and was instrumental in getting our theater group started in town," said David Sorin, president of the Center Players. "He literally walked up and down the streets to find a home for our group. It is fitting that our new home, the Center Playhouse, is directly across from the park honoring Fred."
It is also fitting that the pocket park is a part of the revitalization of Mechanic Street from South Street to Hudson Street, a major project in the renaissance of the county seat’s downtown area.
Sanders was dreaming of a similar revitalization in the 1960s and 1970s when he was a young borough councilman. He was the foremost proponent of a multimillion dollar urban renewal program in 1967, chairing the Borough Council’s urban renewal council.
And the young councilman almost pulled it off. After the urban renewal project was rejected in a nonbinding referendum by borough voters in June 1967, it was defeated later by one vote by the council.
"I was almost 30 years ahead of my time," Sanders told the News Transcript in an interview published just after his appointment to the position of business advocate of the partnership in 1995. "We came just one vote away from having urban renewal."
Sanders had almost landed a similar job in 1975, when the Borough Council considered opening an office of economic and retail development with him as its director. Although supported by the then-Downtown Freehold Merchants Business and Professional Association, that, too, fell through.
"Is this the last gasp of a once proud retail area that once housed five hotels, a complete department store and 23 train stops per day, not to mention the Market Yard, two movie theaters, a bowling alley, four banks, three newspapers and a mill providing employment for thousands of families?" Sanders asked in 1975. "It cannot be denied that the past trend has been against ‘downtown.’ Any town that could reverse this trend would have produced a miracle."
Sanders would live to see that trend reversed by a progressive council and the formation of the partnership a decade ago through the efforts of a small, but dedicated group of local business owners and operators and professionals that has helped to revive the borough’s business district.
"We are so pleased to be able to honor Fred’s memory through the dedication of the park," said Jayne Carr, executive director of the partnership. "He worked so passionately for Freehold, a place he truly loved."
Pocket park’s dedication
will honor Fred Sanders
By dick metzgar
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD — When it came to promoting the borough, no one played more of a front-and-center role than Fred Sanders.
This was most recently evident when Sanders was the business advocate of the Freehold Center Partnership from his appointment to the position in January 1995 until his death in January 1997 at the age of 62.
Among his other accomplishments was helping the Center Players community theater group get a foothold in the county seat.
In honor of Sanders’ efforts on behalf of the community, partnership administrators will dedicate a new pocket park on the corner of South and Mechanic streets in his memory at 1 p.m. Jan. 27. The Center Players will host a tribute to Sanders in their new permanent home on the corner of South and Mechanic streets, directly across from the park.
A stone memorial to be placed in the park will be dedicated in Sanders’ honor.
"Fred was interested in bringing cultural arts to the borough and was instrumental in getting our theater group started in town," said David Sorin, president of the Center Players. "He literally walked up and down the streets to find a home for our group. It is fitting that our new home, the Center Playhouse, is directly across from the park honoring Fred."
It is also fitting that the pocket park is a part of the revitalization of Mechanic Street from South Street to Hudson Street, a major project in the renaissance of the county seat’s downtown area.
Sanders was dreaming of a similar revitalization in the 1960s and 1970s when he was a young borough councilman. He was the foremost proponent of a multimillion dollar urban renewal program in 1967, chairing the Borough Council’s urban renewal council.
And the young councilman almost pulled it off. After the urban renewal project was rejected in a nonbinding referendum by borough voters in June 1967, it was defeated later by one vote by the council.
"I was almost 30 years ahead of my time," Sanders told the News Transcript in an interview published just after his appointment to the position of business advocate of the partnership in 1995. "We came just one vote away from having urban renewal."
Sanders had almost landed a similar job in 1975, when the Borough Council considered opening an office of economic and retail development with him as its director. Although supported by the then-Downtown Freehold Merchants Business and Professional Association, that, too, fell through.
"Is this the last gasp of a once proud retail area that once housed five hotels, a complete department store and 23 train stops per day, not to mention the Market Yard, two movie theaters, a bowling alley, four banks, three newspapers and a mill providing employment for thousands of families?" Sanders asked in 1975. "It cannot be denied that the past trend has been against ‘downtown.’ Any town that could reverse this trend would have produced a miracle."
Sanders would live to see that trend reversed by a progressive council and the formation of the partnership a decade ago through the efforts of a small, but dedicated group of local business owners and operators and professionals that has helped to revive the borough’s business district.
"We are so pleased to be able to honor Fred’s memory through the dedication of the park," said Jayne Carr, executive director of the partnership. "He worked so passionately for Freehold, a place he truly loved."
