Mayor Veasy, second from left, speaks to Funders of the Delaware River Watershed Initiative when they visited Rice Elementary School in October 2019 to view the rain garden installed at the school.
Jaclyn Veasy never set out to lead Evesham as its mayor. She served on the town Democrat Committee and, after being asked a few times about running, in November 2018 won her first elected office.
Now, after about a year of serving in the part-time role — more demanding than most notions of "part-time" — the 42-year-old who prefers "Jackie" sat down at the Route 70 Starbucks with 70and73.com to discuss her vision.
This is the Jackie Veasy who grew up in her parents' Brush Hollow neighborhood home with her brother and sister. Her dad owned the Television Hospital in downtown Marlton and her mother stayed at home with the children until she went to work in an insurance office. Veasy's fourth-grade teacher at St. Joan of Arc school recently saw her at a local restaurant, recalling a young Jackie excused to go to the girls room and dancing down the hallway. She admits her favorite movie is "Dirty Dancing" and she continues to love to dance.
She is single and lives with her parents in the home she grew up in. Veasy, a claims adjuster for GEICO in Marlton, left her hometown only long enough to get her bachelor's degree in New Brunswick at Rutgers University. She graduated from Holy Cross Prep in Delran.
“I always remember driving and there being a lot of farms,” Veasy said of her young years. “We never did anything in Evesham. We always had to go to Moorestown. We always went to Cherry Hill. We were always going places because there wasn’t much in Evesham.”
When Veasy was 2 years old, the 1980 Census found 21,508 people in Evesham — a total that had more than doubled to 45,193 by 2018. Housing units in Evesham grew even more: from 7,024 to 18,642.
70and73: Population gains and residential and commercial building have bred traffic and congestion in Evesham and its neighboring communities. An example is Taunton Lake Road leading from Kings Grant. Is there a fix?
Mayor Veasy: It’s a matter of bringing the infrastructure up. Part of the problem with Kings Grant is it that it’s out in the Pinelands so there is only so much infrastructure upgrade you can do. And you have to get approvals and there’s wetlands. I think the one main road we can’t even expand. Part of the problem is not that we’re growing so much but that (the population is spreading out in) Medford, Shamong, Tabernacle. The only way for everybody to get through is through Kings Grant (area), down Main Street…down 70. So they’re just coming in droves to get to where they work.
70and73: Where are the areas of town where traffic might be addressed?
Mayor Veasy: Some of the roads are outside of our purview because they are state roads and county roads. We’re just trying to work with them and tell them these are our issues. Right now we have the county looking at (the intersection of) Main Street, Evans and Willow Bend to try to alleviate some of the traffic going towards Medford in the evening. That’s a huge headache. We were just talking to some state people about some of the intersections down Route 70 to see if they can help us....Checking of timing of lights, making sure they are all accurate and really can handle the amount of people going through.
The odd and often busy intersection of East Main Street, Evans Road and Willow Bend Road.
70and73: Are there different parts of town you'd like to see developed?
Mayor Veasy: We’re like 85% filled out. So it’s a matter of not necessarily looking at new places to develop but looking at places that could use new development or redevelopment or rehabbing what’s already there....If you were to look at our whole geography…there’s all this land that can be developed. But it’s not developable.
70and73: What do you see coming in? Commercial? Apartments? Single family homes?
Mayor Veasy: Right now apartments are the big thing. Younger people want apartments; people who are retiring, they don’t want the responsibility, they want an apartment....Apartments have their value because they can either bring people into town who might not be ready for a house right away or give someone transition from wherever they’re living.
We want to make sure the commercial that’s here is vibrant so if there are empty stores, making sure that they’re being filled. If there are office buildings that are empty, making sure they’re being filled. And if for some reason they can’t be filled, what could work better in that space?
(Veasy also spoke about team sports, where the town has made strides, compared to personal sports or passive recreation.) We have an aging population. It’s hard to ask the aging population to continue to support team sports…without offering them something in return. Have heard a desire, for example, for pickle ball courts. They want walking paths.
70and73: Is there a store or restaurant that you’d love to land for Evesham?
Mayor Veasy: I keep saying all the time that we need one of those big jump places, where the kids go and play. But I don’t even know if we have a space that could fit it. Something that people could bring their families to and do within Evesham other than just eating. But that’s also one of the things we’ve been working on – a recreation and park system so people can do things in Evesham. What can we do here in Evesham to keep people here? What can we do for the north side of town (with Marlton Parkway roughly being the North-South dividing line)?
(What about that restaurant?) I would love for us to have a Taco Bell. My dad would love to have a KFC.
70and73: Are there new parks to be built? Would the town want to take over the controversial Cambridge Park property on Hanover Road that the Board of Education has put up for sale?
Mayor Veasy: There is open space available in town that we’re looking in to, hopefully using. I’ll leave it at that. (Cambridge Park property is) a little wet and also a little secluded. Looking for more open parks. Working on things but can’t disclose where they are looking.
Mayor Veasy and Deputy Mayor Heather Cooper at the 2019 Evesham Harvest Fest event on Main Street. The mayor is an active volunteer. She has served on the local committee for the Relay for Life/American Cancer Society since the event began. She handles the children's liturgy at the Church of St. Joan of Arc and used to teach religious education before assuming her mayoral duties.
70and73: What of plans for downtown Marlton?
Mayor Veasy: Vision 2020 (for downtown) was done in 2009. We’re in the stages right now of doing a new study and coming up with how we’re going to go the next 10 years. Steps were taken toward the vision by bringing apartments downtown. We’re looking more at parking, arts and culture…What’s going to bring them and make that part of their home life, to go downtown. We’re never going to be a Collingswood or a Haddonfield. We just don’t have that infrastructure but there’s tons that can be done to bring people to downtown.
It’s a collaborative effort between the town, the county and the businesses and residents who live down there. One of the main things we need to do is improve parking and that will make it easier for people to build or rehab…helping to guide them toward a shared vision. (Veasy mentioned the brick sidewalks and the lampposts.) That is what makes our town unique….It’s a mater of revitalizing the look and feel of the houses and the businesses and bringing a little life to downtown.
We think we need another restaurant or two if we could work that in somewhere on Main Street.…Trying to do more art galleries or arts and culture sites.
One of my main concerns at this point is to start with the parking. (She said the town still is studying how to add more parking downtown, whether small lots, a large lot or even a parking garage. Veasy also discussed the Farmers Market, which debuted last year at the Marlton Greene Shopping Center. They've added farmers and vendors for this year and it will run from June 3 to late September, 4 p.m. to dusk every other Wednesday.)
70and73: When you campaigned, you talked about the strained relationship with the school district. What is being done?
Mayor Veasy: There was a strained relationship between the school district and the administration.…One of the first things we did when we came into office was to reach out and say what can we do to try to improve this relationship? You could definitely see on the school board side they were a little hesitant of bridging that gap. The town has been scheduling meetings on a regular basis with school board members and the superintendent....We have to work together. This is our home.
70and73: Other concerns?
Mayor Veasy: How can we help this aging community? What kind of services do we need to provide? (Veasy explained that between 2003 and 2016 her parents' home was a three-generation household as she and her mother cared for her grandmother. Now her parents are in their 70s.) When you have that perspective it just helps you.…You’re not just thinking about the kids. You’re thinking about everybody.
