Mercer County Executive Dan Benson was presented with the Jim Floyd Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award in conjunction with the annual Joint Effort Princeton Safe Streets program.
Terry McEwen, president and CEO of Tioga Franklin Savings Bank, also was presented with the Jim Floyd Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award during the celebration of Princeton’s historic Black community, which was held Aug. 2-11.
The award is named for the late Jim Floyd, who was the first Black mayor of the former Princeton Township. He was elected to the former Princeton Township Committee in 1968 and named mayor in 1971. He died in 2018.
Benson thanked John Bailey and the Joint Effort Princeton Safe Streets program for bestowing the honor on him. Bailey created and organizes the annual program.
“Mayor Jim Floyd was a trailblazer, a leader and a mentor to many of the people leading Princeton and Mercer County today,” Benson said as he accepted the award at a ceremony Aug. 6.
“As county executive, I am committed to carrying on Mayor Floyd’s vision of a government that pursues equity for all our citizens.”
Benson said he became acquainted with Floyd and worked with him soon after he was elected to the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders – now known as the Mercer County Board of County Commissioners.
“Jim gave you advice and he would tell you the way things were,” he said. “Princeton Township was a very different place [at the time].”
Princeton Township consolidated with the former Princeton Borough in 2013.
Floyd was able to bring people together, he said. When Floyd was asked about the one or two things that he wanted done, he would reply that it’s not just one or two things.
“He had a list (of things that he wanted to achieve) that rolled down the hall,” Benson said.
The Joint Effort Princeton Safe Streets program celebrates the contributions of the Black community – centered on the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood – to the town of Princeton.
