Four area towns have applied for grant moneypurchase the Twin Pines Airport property
By: Lean Kahn
Lawrence Township is applying for a pair of matching grants that would pay for the construction of soccer, baseball and lacrosse playing fields.
Township officials submitted the grant application to Mercer County this week. The Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders has set aside $1.5 million for the new grant program.
One of the grant applications seeks money to purchase the 50-acre Twin Pines Airport and develop six athletic fields at the site. The airport, a low-use facility with grassy runways, is located on Lawrenceville-Pennington Road in Hopewell Township.
Lawrence filed a joint grant application with Hopewell Township, Hopewell Borough and Pennington, Municipal Manager Richard Krawczun said. The two townships would develop the soccer and baseball fields, he said.
"What we are proposing (with the Hopewells and Pennington) is a joint purchase of the Twin Pines Airport and the development of the site into recreational playing fields, primarily soccer, and possibly one or two baseball fields," Mr. Krawczun said.
"It will strengthen our application because more towns are involved," he said of the joint application. Mercer County officials have urged towns to get together and seek joint funding for a project, Mr. Krawczun said.
William Weasner, the owner of the airport property, has consented to the application through an affidavit. A purchase price for the airport has not been negotiated, Mr. Krawczun said.
The second grant application seeks money to develop athletic fields on 28 acres of Lawrence Township-owned land off Princeton Pike, opposite Fackler Road.
A preliminary study of the site, conducted by Brinkerhoff Environmental Services Inc. earlier this year, identified possible contaminants on the site, specifically from Colonial Lake, a man-made body of water on Brunswick Pike, opposite the Lawrence Shopping Center.
The contamination occurred when the township used the land as a dumping site for dredged material from Colonial Lake in 1999. A smaller, maintenance dredge of the lake occurred in 2004. The spoils, or dredged material, covers about 9 acres of the 28-acre site.
The cost of developing athletic fields on that parcel would depend on whether the site needs to be cleaned up, Mr. Krawczun said.
Township officials acknowledge the need for more athletic fields.
"We don’t have enough fields," said Steven Groeger, Lawrence Township superintendent of recreation. "The grant will allow us to provide more facilities. They will be facilities that are designed to be played on, not grassy areas."
Most of the township Recreation Department-sponsored programs use the athletic fields at township-owned Central Park and Village Park, Mr. Groeger said. The Recreation Department also uses athletic fields at Lawrence Intermediate School, Lawrence Middle School and Lawrence High School, when not in use by the schools, Mr. Groeger said. The grassy areas behind the New Jersey Army National Guard Armory, on Eggerts Crossing Road, also are used, he added.
"Right now, during soccer season, we are using five fields at the armory, three fields at LIS, three at Village Park and three at Central Park," Mr. Groeger said. "For example, we use all of the soccer fields at Village Park Monday through Friday. We use them on Saturday and Sunday, and one field at the high school."
The constant use means the fields do not get time to recover, Mr. Groeger said. Creating additional athletic fields would take the pressure and constant use off what is already in use, he said.
Mr. Groeger said three fields on the Lawrence property, and six fields on the airport property could be developed. Lawrence would use three fields and the two Hopewells and Pennington Borough would use the other three, he said.
"It’s real simple," Mr. Groeger said. "We want children to be active, (but) we can’t promote them to be active by jamming them onto the fields."

