Politics & Government

Wall Park To Gain Land With County Grant

Township secures $225,000 from county for Community Park

The township is one step closer to sealing up the entirety of the area behind the municipal building after scoring a county grant to purchase the nearly 2-acre plot that is surrounded by Community Park.

The Monmouth County freeholders at their Dec. 21 meeting awarded Wall a $225,000 Open Space Grant – one of 13 such grants awarded to municipalities throughout the county – to offset the cost of purchasing a 1.86-acre parcel adjacent to the township soccer fields.

Wall had applied for a $250,000 grant, the maximum award given by the county board – but the field of 17 towns competing for the grants was formidable in this round, said Faith Hahn, supervising manager of the Monmouth County Park System. The park system administers the awards.

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"We had a lot of really good applications this time,'' Hahn said.

Township Administrator Joe Verruni could not be reached for comment. Neither Mayor George Newberry nor Deputy Mayor Anne Marie Conte returned requests for comment.

Find out what's happening in Wallwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The county freeholders have approved grants totaling $2.5 million from the 2010 Monmouth County Open Space Trust Fund to create or improve park facilities in 13 towns, according to a release from the freeholders.

"With this round of municipal open space grants we have now funded more than 100 projects in our communities," said Freeholder Director Lillian G. Burry, said in the release. "Sharing the cost of these municipal projects supports and improves the quality of life in our communities and furthers the county's ongoing commitment to land preservation for parks, recreation, open space and farmland."

All of the county's 53 municipalities were eligible to apply for land acquisition and park facility funding awards. The total of all 17 requests was $3.3 million. This is the eighth year of the program.

Wall was among four towns that received money for open space or park acquisition projects. The other three were Aberdeen, Manalapan and Marlboro.

Nine others were granted funding awards for park development or improvement projects, according to the release.

Since 1993, the county's Municipal Open Space Grant program has awarded $17.6 million to 43 towns and funding 103 projects, according to the release.

Applications for the 2010 Monmouth County Municipal Open Space Grant Program will be available on or about May 1. The filing deadline will be in September, the release said.


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