Group Works to Promote Hightstown

To even the untrained eye, downtown Hightstown is looking great these days. More people are enjoying what the town has to offer, and residents and other locals have been enjoying downtown events like the Farmers Market and the annual Holiday Storefront and Window Decorating Contest.

Downtown, a new decorative trellis has been erected to link Main Street with a rear municipal parking lot. And, for those who are new to the area and don’t know what Hightstown has to offer, there is now a color brochure and map of Hightstown that notes places of interest.

There’s also the new HightSaver Card and matching keytag, which for $20, or $10 for seniors and students, can get patrons of Hightstown-area shops and restaurants discounts of up to 25 percent off at participating merchants.

A spirited partner behind all these projects has been Downtown Hightstown Inc., an organization of volunteers who are dedicated to preserving and improving Hightstown’s downtown area and promoting Hightstown as a pedestrian-friendly destination of dining, shopping, living, working and playing. The group often works in tandem with merchants and other Hightstown groups to promote events and programs being run by other Hightstown groups.

The group, founded in late 2007, has created a website to get the word out about Hightstown and its events, as well as a Facebook page.  It has also has had a hand in recruiting volunteers and publicizing many Hightstown events, like the yearly Hightstown Triathlon.

From the website, www.downtownhightstown.org, community members can subscribe to an email to get weekly news about upcoming Hightstown events, or search the site for online links to Hightstown schools, houses of worship and social services. Visitors to the website can also elect to follow the group on Facebook or Twitter.

Among the projects the group is currently helping to promote are a program where patrons can dine locally to support the the Greenway Bridge project and volunteer recruitment for the 2011 Hightstown Triathlon committee. The group is also looking for a new executive director for its own organization.

“People want to know what’s happening downtown,” said Amanda Porter, who co-chairs Downtown Hightstown Inc.’s Organization Committee. The group’s website and Facebook page offer a look at what’s happening downtown – for example, those curious about the Stockton Street Historic District Streetscape Infrastructure Project in Hightstown can look at photos of the new herringbone brick and bluestone sidewalks and granite curbing installed along the street.

“Anything that benefits the community as a whole, we promote,” said Lev Golinkin, the other Organization Committee co-chairperson.

What’s on the plate for this spring and summer? The group is hoping to build up Hightstown as the place to be on a warm evening, with hopes of once again having live music at the Farmer’s Market, and perhaps bringing paddleboats to Peddie Lake, Golinkin and Porter said.