FAIR HAVEN — The borough will apply for a grant from Monmouth County to replace the municipal boat ramp and create two pocket parks that would improve access to the Navesink River.
Borough Administrator Theresa Casagrande said an application is being prepared for a $250,000 matching grant from the Monmouth County Municipal Open Space Grant Program. The funds would finance two waterfront pocket parks on Hance Road and Grange Avenue on borough-owned property, replacement of the Cooney Terrace boat ramp and bulkhead improvements in those areas.
“The grant will go to improvements to our boat ramp and the surrounding area,” she said at the Aug. 11 Borough Council meeting. “It will also include bulkhead improvements at the end of both Grange Avenue and Hance Road, [and] pocket parks at both those locations will be installed with increased access to the Navesink.”
Borough Engineer Richard Gardella said the borough’s boat ramp is in need of an upgrade.
“The boat ramp — what we really want to do is obviously enhance the usability of it. And right now, if you’re a boater, it is very tricky to launch your boat,” he said. “We think we need to remove and replace the boat ramp.
“Right now, it’s asphalt that is beginning to undermine, and we have some maintenance issues. We are looking to install a concrete block that you see in other boat ramps.”
According to Gardella, the concrete-block boat ramp will last longer and is safer for boaters.
Construction of the pocket parks would improve access to the Navesink River, particularly at Grange Avenue, he said.
The plans included in the application are conceptual, and both Casagrande and Gardella are working on design and budget specifications in advance of the Sept. 17 application due date.
If the borough secures the grant, the project would likely begin 2016 or 2017.
Resident Dave Rue said at the public hearing on the grant authorization that the project might draw too many people from outside the borough.
“My concern here is we will turn Cooney Terrace and Hance Road into an attraction for others from Red Bank and Middletown or neighboring towns to come down and do their fishing and do their boating,” he said. “I am happy for town residents to go through there, and I’d be very happy for the ramp to be more accessible to provide beach access there.”
Another resident requested that a police officer be assigned to the pocket parks at midnight to ensure the areas are secure and not being used for illicit activities.
Parking could become an issue if the borough is awarded the grant, and Casagrande said the council could opt to reconfigure parking in the area at a later time.
Gardella said the project is contingent upon county funding and permitting by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
According to Casagrande, Fair Haven taxpayers contribute approximately $200,000 annually to the county’s open space program, and the grant is a way to recoup some of that money.
She also said the borough received open space funding in 2004, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013.