By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
UPPER FREEHOLD A package of $6.8 million in statewide grants for local road and safety projects that the governor’s office announced last week included a $16,079 grant to reimburse the township for Walnford Road repairs.
The township declared a special emergency in order to complete the repairs to the drainage system on Walnford Road after Hurricane Irene in 2011, Township Administrator Dianne Kelly said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursed the township for 75 percent of the project’s cost, she said.
”The award from the state basically covers the remaining 25 percent of the cost,” Ms. Kelly said on Jan. 29. “We are very grateful to the state and FEMA for assisting us with this project.”
The state Department of Transportation announced the grants on Jan. 28, including a total $1.1 million in Local Aid Infrastructure Fund grants and $5.7 million in federally funded Safe Routes to School grants. The LAIF grants included $16,079 for Walnford Road drainage and the New Canton Estates inlets.
Two days later the Department of Environmental Protection announced that Upper Freehold would be receiving a $5,084 state grant for the Municipal Complex trail connection to the Monmouth County Union Transportation Trail.
The Union Transportation Trail, used today by equestrians, hikers and joggers, was once the Pemberton & Hightstown Railroad established in 1864 to give dairies and farms access to larger railroads at junctions in Pemberton and Hightstown.
Passenger train service ceased in 1931 during the Great Depression and after freight service on the last sections of the line stopped in 1977 and the line was abandoned, JCP&L acquired the right-of-way. The county park system acquired a permanent easement from JCP&L in 1998 and opened the first section of the trail for recreational use in 2010.
Part of the Union Transportation Trail runs behind the Municipal Complex property on Route 539. The township applied for the state grant in order to construct a walkway to connect the township property to the trail.
”The project is to construct a trail link from the municipal parking lot to the Union Transportation Trail, a length of at least 300 linear feet,” Ms. Kelly said in an email. “We applied for a grant of $25,000 but received $5,804. The original estimate was approximately $35,000 plus the cost of engineering.
”The grant requires a 25 percent match,” Ms. Kelly wrote. “If we proceed with the project and accept the grant we will probably need to modify some of the materials used in construction and utilize our DPW staff to a large degree, in an effort to bring the costs closer to the actual grant award.”

