ROBBINSVILLE: Town unveils plans for two park buildings

Indoor toilets, concession stands, meeting rooms included

By Amy Batista, Special Writer
  ROBBINSVILLE — Township officials are preparing to go out to bid next month for the construction of recreation buildings with indoor bathrooms at both Blakely Park and Community Park.
   The buildings are projected to be ready by spring of 2013.
   Community Park, located at West Manor Way and Gordon Road, has a playground, walking paths and up to 10 fields used primarily by the Robbinsville Soccer Association. The smaller 28-acre Blakely Park on Meadowbrook Road has three athletic fields and is home to Robbinsville PAL football and the Robbinsville Lacrosse Association. Both parks lack concession stands and indoor toilets.
   ”We’ve got two nice improvements that we are going to be making to Blakely Park and Community Park,” Township Council President Ron Witt said at the council’s Sept. 13 meeting. “It’s going to be a nice improvement for the area that the residents should get a lot of usage out of.”
   The combined cost of the two new facilities is projected at $500,000 to $600,000, but there will be no impact on local property taxpayers, according to Mr. Witt. The town has grant money for the projects as well as funds from the sale of a 2.3-acre parcel at the edge of Community Park to the NJ Turnpike Authority for the turnpike-widening project, Township Engineer Tim McGough said.
   At Community Park the building plans call for a 96-by-22-foot structure that is essentially two buildings connected by a 30-foot roof deck. A concrete walkway, sheltered by the roof deck, will be installed between the two buildings. The total square footage of both Community Park buildings is 1,775 square feet.
   One building will have the indoor bathrooms, a concession stand and a meeting and storage room for the recreation leagues. The second building will have a 38-by-21 foot meeting room that either the township or recreation leagues can use.
   ”It can be a place of assembly for the RSA (Robbinsville Soccer Association) or the township can use (it),” Mr. Witt said at the council meeting.
   Mr. McGough said the larger assembly room at Community Park could have a wide range of uses.
   ”In that room will be able to have things such as the arts and crafts classes, recreational classes for the kids that are inside … then when the leagues do their drafts and there are a lot of people involved they can have that meeting in there,” Mr. McGough said.
   Mr. McGough said phase two of the Community Park is a second-floor deck/bridge.
   ”It could provide outdoor seating for people coming from the concession stand and it would basically be under the trees,” Mr. McGough said. “It looks nice under there. You could picture yourself getting a hot dog and going and sitting on the deck while the tournament is going on or while you are waiting for your next game.”
   Mr. McGough said that eventually the township recreation director might even be able to rent the roof-deck area out for parties.
   At Blakely Park, plans call for a 50-by-22-foot building with indoor bathrooms, a concession stand and a storage/meeting area.
   ”The nice feature is the second floor at Blakely will be used as a press box so the leagues can record their games and use it for further instructional training,” Mr. Witt said at the council meeting.
   Mr. McGough said they are in the process of finalizing construction drawings and he anticipates going out to bid within the next month so that construction could begin next year.
   The township has the funds on hand to move forward with the projects, including $300,000 in funds from the NJ Turnpike Authority and about $500,000 in county grants, Mr. McGough said.
   ”Depending on how the bids come in it could all be paid for, but certainly a vast majority of it is paid for,” Mr. McGough said. “It’s been a year (designing). We wanted to make sure that what we built out there is going to serve us well for a long time,” he added.