EGG HARBOR CITY - An Atlantic City Electric engineer is working on developing a proposal of options to bring light to one of the city’s darkest streets.

The street he wants to shed some light on is the 2,000-foot main entranceway to the 18-month-old Cedar Creek High School.

“I don’t know how they ever received a C.O.” said Bradley N. Haber, the city’s designated redeveloper for the 300-acre tract of property that surrounds Cedar Creek. “It’s so dark.”
Haber made his comments during Council’s Jan. 27 meeting in which Atlantic City Electric’s Lou Capone addressed citywide lighting concerns and options at Cedar Creek.

“We can talk about options,” he said. “We could install temporary lighting and maybe share costs.”

Haber, who will present plans to the city Planning Board later this month for the 50-unit first phase of his Egg Harbor City North project, said about six lights need to be installed along the roadway leading to the school.

“What we have here,” he said, “is essentially an elongated driveway.”

The roadway is an extension of New York Avenue which serves as Cedar Creek’s driveway and stretches from Moss Mill Road and ends at the school’s gated main entrance. The dimly lit Egg Harbor City Cemetery borders the drive on its left and a densely forested area borders the driveway on its right.

A post-sunset drive down the roadway reveals a scene that is so dark that the area’s only light comes from the stars and from the solar grave markers at the nearby cemetery.

“There’s a lot of questions,” Haber said. “I’d like to help the school district get some lights, but what’s in the future?”

Eventually, Haber said, much of the area around the high school could be developed into residential housing and the driveway could become a public road.

“The point is that right now it is a dangerous condition,” he said. “The kids go back and forth in total darkness.”

Capone also addressed options for installing a street light at the corner of Moss Mill Road and New York Avenue to make it easier for nighttime motorists to find the school driveway.

“Eventually it will be a residential neighborhood,” Council President Ed Dennis said. “We are thankful the high school is there.”

Because the high school was built using standardized New Jersey Schools Development Authority plans, the district did not have to go before the city’s Planning Board or Zoning Board for review, Haber said.

“I’m sure commitments would have been made to put lights on New York Avenue,” Dennis said. “They are used to putting schools in urban areas where there is already proper lighting in place.”

Calls to the school district were not returned before publication.