BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer
The borough is one step closer to seeing progress on the Fair Haven fields project after the introduction of an ordinance last month to appropriate funds for the revitalization plans.
The council introduced an ordinance at the April 25 meeting that appropriated $360,000, which includes a Municipal Open Space Grant of $175,000 that was received at the March 14 municipal meeting.
The council also authorized the issuance of $342,850 in bonds to finance the project, according to the ordinance.
“We will be doing [the project] in parts which will cost $1.5 to $2 million total,” Councilman Thomas Schissler said at the meeting.
“It could be done in three to four to five phases. We do not know now.”
Some residents voiced concern about the process.
“This [project] does not directly affect me, but I heard that to finish the park [will cost] $3 million,” Regina Baldwin, Oxford Avenue, said at the meeting. “This is being done piecemeal. You are going to do the parking lots first, and then what if there is no money for the buffer [zone from the parking lot area to the area bordering residences]?”
But Schissler said he is confident that the steps the borough is taking to renovate the borough fields will add up.
“It is not really piecemeal,” he said. “There will be money for the buffer zone. It is a thought-out process. We want to go on down the line until we have a finished project.”
The first phase will be dedicated to renovating the parking lots, he added.
Fair Haven Fields is a 77.43-acre tract located off Ridge Road and extending back to Third Street. It has been part of the council’s long-range plan to prepare for the future, Schissler said in a March interview.
Cranmer Engineering, Shrewsbury, is preparing the plans.
The borough fields encompass a full-size soccer field, four tennis courts, a regulation-size baseball field, three Little League baseball fields, three youth-size baseball fields, an intermediate soccer field, a concession stand, a children’s playground, a wood-chip walking trail and two parking lots – one off Ridge Road and another one off McCarter.
Schissler said the area is not being used to its full potential and needs to be reconfigured as well as renovated.
“We live in a community with lots of children,” Councilman Garrett Bess said at the meeting. “As a governing body, we have the responsibility to provide our residents with an even greater sense of community.
“Fair Haven Fields is located in the center of the community, and the council has chosen to take action.”
The initial infusion of funds will be used for a new parking lot, transforming the original gravel lot off Ridge Road, which accommodated 40-50 cars, into a paved lot with 61 spaces.
The lot off McCarter Avenue will remain open, but the long-term goal is to eventually turn that area into playing fields, Schissler said.
An additional lot with 162 parking spaces is planned for an area closer to Third Street.
There will be a 110-foot buffer zone that will remain a wooded area between the new parking lot and the Gentry Drive residences whose property lines border the park, Schissler said.
The first phase of the project is slated to begin before the fall, and at this time Cranmer said he does not have an estimated final cost for this phase of the project.