Old baseball complex enjoys
new life as Community Park
By clare MARie celano
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD — The new Community Park is completed and ready for borough residents.
The park on Otterson Road, which is home to the Freehold Borough Little League, combines the excitement of team sports with the fun of a picnic on a grassy field. It is now also a place where children can enjoy wonderful, colorful new playground equipment.
According to Borough Administrator Joseph Bellina, borough employees have converted a "virtual eyesore into a community park that will be enjoyed by all residents."
Bellina said the project required more than three years of planning, design, funding and implementation. He said the borough received more than $300,000 in various forms of grant funding from the Community Development Block Grant program to undertake this endeavor.
Numerous repairs of the grounds have taken place under the direction of Superintendent of Streets and Roads Bobby Holmes, Superintendent of Water and Sewer Norm Townsend and the borough’s engineer aide, Dan Megill, according to Bellina.
The administrator said the credit for the design of the park goes to Abbington Associates of Freehold.
The park’s fields have been resodded, new sprinklers have been installed on all fields and two new bathrooms have been installed in the clubhouse.
According to Bellina, prior to this time there was only a baseball field at the facility. The new $30,000 red, white and blue plastic playground has changed all that. Parents can enjoy watching their young-sters play in a baseball game while sitting on new bleachers, while taking turns walking their little ones over to the playground section.
The town has also installed new batting cages and has provided a concrete walk and access to comply with the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as well as ease of pedestrian movement. An ADA walking trail has also been provided, according to Bellina.
Landscaping throughout the park has been added and now accentuates the improvements made.
A new scoreboard and a parking area have also been added to the Fourth Street field.
New park benches are expected to be installed in the coming weeks.
The Freehold Borough Little League has been using the new fields at the park sporadically, due to inclement weather, since April. Little League President George Schnurr said everyone is enjoying the new facility.
Calling the Community Park "a first-rate facility," at a dedication ceremony on May 10, Schnurr thanked Mayor Michael Wilson, Borough Council members, borough employees, Bellina and Megill for all of their efforts in seeing that the improvements were completed.
"I am very fortunate to have had the mayor and council’s unyielding support for our program," Schnurr said. "I thank them for today’s participation and for all of their cooperation during the preceding months."
Wilson was joined at the ceremony by council President Sharon Shutzer, Councilman Michael Toubin and Samantha Daesner, representing the recreation commission.
Schnurr said Bellina has "worked tirelessly on our behalf, for almost three years, to make this a reality. It is nice to dream, but without the technical and administrative expertise that Joe Bellina brings to the table, this project would have never seen the light of day."