Open space grants for municipalities

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www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071212/GETPUBLISHED/712120527/1028/OPINION

I am putting this here because I would hope that our elected leaders have applied for this type of program. Parks and recreation are a very valuable quality of life issue. Parks and recereation are one of the things that potential home buyers will consider when looking at an area. Good parks and recreation also increase property value.

In a town like FB, we do not have much of any land to preserve for recreation. There are grants that can help out a great deal with the maintenance costs and upgrades. Playgrounds are one such area that all towns have had to look at in recent years. Due to liability and a greater awareness for safety, older equiptment needs to be evaluated and upgraded to meet today's standards.

Personally, I am not all that familiar with what the town does with it's parks or if the town looks outside for help, but it is a question well worth asking.

Brian
FREEHOLD — The Board of Chosen Freeholders has approved grants totaling $2,301,000 from the 2007 Monmouth County Open Space Trust Fund to acquire, create or improve park facilities in 11 municipalities.

"This program helps municipalities preserve open space and acquire and improve parkland by sharing the costs with the county," said Freeholder Lillian G. Burry, liaison to the county's Park System. "Both land acquisition and park, recreation and open space improvement efforts were eligible and considered. This is a valuable tool to help municipalities maintain and improve the quality of life in their communities."

All of the county's 53 municipalities were eligible to apply for funding awards. Twenty towns made requests seeking a total of $3.9 million. The Board of Chosen Freeholders approved the grant awards at its Dec. 6 regular meeting. This is the fifth year of the program.

Maximum $250,000 grants, all for acquisition, were awarded to five municipalities:

• Allentown, for the acquisition and preservation of a 33-acre parcel on Breza Road as part of a regional plan and partnership with Upper Freehold, Washington Township, and the regional Board of Education.

• Belmar, for the acquisition of the .28 acres of waterfront property adjacent to the Shark River Inlet.

• Holmdel, for the acquisition of a 12-acre parcel adjacent to Mahoras Brook and an existing municipal park.

• Tinton Falls, for the acquisition of 4.89 acres located between State, town, and school lands.

• Upper Freehold, for the acquisition and preservation of a 35-acre parcel on Breza Road as part of a regional plan and partnership with Allentown, Washington Township, and the regional Board of Education.

Six other municipalities were granted funding awards, in the following amounts:

• Aberdeen, $169,000 for new and improved access to the waterfront at Seawall Park.

• Hazlet, $238,000 for boardwalk, gazebo, and tennis court improvements as well as a new skate park area at Veterans? Memorial Park.

• Howell, $150,000 for improvements to a 178-acre park, including two off-leash dog areas, fountains, benches and fencing.

• Sea Bright, $153,000 for the improvements to an oceanfront park including the creation of a concrete skateboard park.

• Sea Girt, $238,000 for a cooperative project with the Board of Education to create a new, multi-use play facility to support municipal recreation programs.

• Union Beach, $103,000 for Phase 2 of a project to rehabilitate and expand Scholer Park.

Land acquisition and development for park recreation and open-space purposes are made possible by the Monmouth County Municipal Open Space Grant Program, a competitive matching-funds program for municipalities sponsored by the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders and administered by the Monmouth County Park System. Applications were due Sept. 19.

"The county's significant contribution to the Riverdale Avenue East acquisition allows us to protect and link nearly five acres of land with a state natural area and municipal and school properties," Tinton Falls Mayor Peter Maclearie said. "This county program is a perfect example of the county's willingness to support local community efforts to preserve open space and maintain the quality of life in Monmouth County."

Applications for the 2008 Monmouth County Municipal Open Space Grant Program will be available on or about May 1. The filing deadline will be in September.

For more information, visit the Park System's Web site at www.monmouthcountyparks.com

[casualreader]

Welcome Back Ali -- You have been sorely missed. No one can put an issue into perspective like you can.

[admin]

This article is a very nice follow up on the topic of parks. Again, I do not know what our town does. This thread is just meant as food for thought. Playgrounds carry quite a bit of liability. As this article states, new ones are expensive. If the town has recieved grants in the past and kept it's playgrounds up to modern safety standards, that is a very good thing. www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?

AID=/20071220/NEWS01/712200304/1285/LOCAL09

FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — New recreational equipment will be installed at two local playgrounds to ensure they conform to state safety regulations.

The Township Committee on Dec. 4 awarded a $29,500 contract to Whirl Construction of the Port Monmouth section of Middletown to install playground equipment at two local pocket-park playgrounds.

The equipment will replace playground structures at Wynnfield Park, between the Wynnfield and Juniper Farms developments north of Route 524 and east of Route 9. Equipment also will be placed at Sandy Brook Park, off Route 537 on the east side of the township.

The new playgrounds will include jungle gyms and benches, said Assistant Township Administrator Richard D. Phelan. Safety mulch will be laid beneath the equipment, he said.

Municipalities across the state had until Oct. 15 to make their playgrounds compliant with state playground safety regulations, Phelan said. The township had removed the old equipment from the Wynnfield and Sandy Brook playgrounds by then and hope to install the new structures by the end of this month, he said.

The new equipment will cost approximately $120,000.

The township has spent more than $400,000 over the past two years to make its playgrounds compliant with the new regulations, said Township Administrator Thomas E. Antus.

"This is pretty much the end of the process," he said.

Of the money spent, about $87,202 came from grants, according to Phelan. The remainder is being paid through a bond ordinance.