It’s open-space money, but should it be spent for open space?
By: Marjorie Censer
It’s never easy to decide how to spend Princeton Borough funds, but Borough Council members are particularly wrangling over how to spend a $375,000 open-space grant received recently from Mercer County.
The grant, received through a municipal-assistance program, is a partial reimbursement 15 percent of $2.5 million of the new downtown plaza.
Open-space funds, collected through the county open-space tax, typically are used to acquire new open spaces, said Councilman Andrew Koontz, who worked as council liaison with County Executive Brian Hughes to secure the grant. Because the borough has little available land, it has not benefited from those taxes in the past.
"All of it is going to municipalities outside Princeton Borough," Mr. Koontz explained. "We’re in a municipality where all the open space that can be acquired has been."
The grant, which exceeds the $300,000 cap normally placed on the program because of the borough’s infrequent ability to qualify for the program, provides funding for the plaza as if it had been acquired, although it was actually adapted by the borough to be an open space.
Borough Administrator Robert Bruschi said the grant is now available to be used however the council would like.
But the council can’t seem to agree.
Mr. Koontz has a clear idea for how the money should be spent he’d like to see roughly $50,000 go toward reimbursing the borough for the cost of the plaza, $250,000 earmarked for the rehabilitation of the Harrison Street Park and $75,000 set aside for other open-space needs in the borough.
He said the borough has a responsibility to use the money on its open spaces namely its parks.
"I think the proper use of the money is for open spaces," he said. "Really it’s a separate fund."
And he said the Harrison Street Park is in desperate need of rehabilitation. After nearly two years of neighborhood meetings and analysis by a local landscape architect, the project was put on the back burner, Mr. Koontz said.
"My position is here we have the money at hand," he said. "The opportunity is here to move forward on the rehabilitation of the Harrison Street Park."
But other members of the council are not so certain the grant should be spent on that park, much less any park.
Councilman David Goldfarb said the funding was granted in connection with the plaza and should be used to reimburse the considerable cost of the plaza.
If the parks need rehabilitation, Mr. Goldfarb said, "They should compete with all of the other demands we have on our resources and the demands of residents to keep our taxes low."
Mr. Goldfarb said that the plaza was a significant cost and has turned out to be more heavily used than any of the borough’s parks.
In the end, Mr. Bruschi said, the money will likely be spent on several items, depending on what the council decides.
Councilwoman Wendy Benchley said she does not think the money should be put into general revenue but was also uncertain that so much of the funding should go toward the Harrison Street Park.
"I think this is a gem for us to spend on our parks and our open space," she said. "I think we should think very carefully about how we spend the money."

