Borough bike trails get boost from DOT

Hightstown will receive $250,000 from the state to help construct bike trails.

By: Scott Morgan
   HIGHTSTOWN — For more than half a century, communities around the United States have looked for a less beaten path. Earlier this month, the borough received a quarter million dollars to help it find its own.
   Last week, the Borough Council announced it has garnered a $250,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation to help build the network of bike trails that ultimately will comprise its Greenways system. The state Greenways Project, which has been slow to cross the nexus of red tape, is an ambitious plan to connect New Jersey’s 21 counties through a system of hiking/walking/riding trails through the state’s wooded and historic areas.
   Annually, the DOT grants municipalities money toward their own versions of the project, which, when complete, is expected to allow hikers and cyclists the ability to cross the entire state without setting foot (or wheel) on a highway. According to the letter sent by acting DOT Commissioner Jack Lettiere to the borough, the competition for state money gets tougher to come by every year. This year’s bidding ended with DOT granting $7 million to 41 local bikeway projects — that’s out of 94 requests, asking for $23 million.
   Mayor Bob Patten said the money will go toward the design and construction of two legs of the Hightstown Greenway: the Hightstown High School leg and the Cranbury Station leg. The high school leg will see construction of bike trails near HHS, while the Cranbury Station leg will see a similar approach taken to the off-street areas along Cranbury Station Road.
   Eventually, Mayor Patten said, these bike trails will meet with other trails within the borough and with those in East Windsor. The goal, Mayor Patten said, is for Hightstown to become a link in the cross-state chain of north-to-south and east-to-west passage.
   Besides being a system of nature paths, Mayor Patten said, the Hightstown Greenways project also will run through the borough’s historic areas.
   With winter weather still a major factor, Mayor Patten said, construction on the bike trails likely will not begin until spring. He added that the borough must first acquire easements around the town before the project could ever be completed. In fact, one of the state project’s main hurdles has been tying the network through private property.
   "We need a few more of them," he said.