BY ELAINE VAN DEVELDE
Staff Writer
Tinton Falls TINTON FALLS — It took a few years, but one swath of open space in the borough is going to the dogs … and the children, and anyone else with recreational needs.
The long-vacant, 39-acre Duncan Thecker tract, on West Park Avenue near Wayside Road, will soon be flush with a doggie park, tot lot, athletic fields, walking/biking trails, and “every passive and active recreational facility imaginable,” said Mayor Ann McNamara.
The park, named Liberty Park II, was dedicated last week on June 14.
It will be open — as planned when ground was broken on the project last year — in August.
“When it’s complete, it is going to be the largest park in the southern section of town,” McNamara said. “It will have the doggie park, the tot lot, two practice football fields, a basketball court, a baseball field, a seven-tenths-mile walking/biking/running path, a concession stand, restrooms, some indoor recreation facilities, and even a pond with a gazebo next to it. The gazebo was donated by the Rotary Club. It’s just going to be wonderful.”
The borough bought the land a few years ago for $1.3 million with money garnered from its 1.5-cent-per-$100 (of assessed property value) open space tax. The cost was subsidized by state Department of Environmental Protection Green Acres Program funds.
The price for building the recreational amenities was tagged at $1.2 million, a tab that was picked up with developer contributions and Green Acres money.
T&M Associates, Middletown, designed the complex.
“People have been waiting a long time for this great deal to come through,” McNamara said. “We struggled with some deals with developers that fell through. But it happened, and it is something sorely needed in town. Now we’ll have one deluxe recreational center in the southern portion of town and another, which is progressing nicely, in the northern section.”
McNamara was referring to the Sycamore Avenue Soccer Complex on Sycamore Avenue, which is currently under construction.
That facility, which has a price tag of about $1.6 million, is being funded by the developer of the former Laurino Farm, Sterling Properties of Livingston. The soccer fields/recreation complex will have amenities similar to those at Liberty Park II.
Sterling is footing the bill for the Sycamore complex as part of an agreement struck with the borough to offset the development of its age-restricted community, at Hance and Sycamore avenues, with open space/recreation.
In the future, officials said they would like to name a field after former borough engineer John Chmielowick, who was killed in a car accident last summer. Chmielowick was an avid soccer enthusiast.