More fundraisers scheduled
By Doug Carman, Staff Writer
HIGHTSTOWN — Fundraising efforts are well under way to build a new walkway bridge across Peddie Lake to replace the old concrete bridge torn down more than two years ago.
Chairman Darek Hahn of the Greenway Bridge Committee told the Herald that the committee has raised nearly $30,000 out of the $45,000 needed for a potential contract to build the 45-foot footbridge. With a series of fundraisers coming up over the next month, he hopes the remaining $15,000 can be raised “between one to two months, hopefully.”
”Ideally, we would love to be going out to bid for the bridge sometime in March,” Mr. Hahn said. “We hope to have it up by mid-summer, the 90th anniversary of the library’s (opening).”
Mr. Hahn said the committee raised about $13,000 from last April to the end of January. Though the goal was to raise $15,000 by the end of 2010, an anonymous donor agreed shortly after Christmas to match what the committee had raised, bringing the total to about $25,000. Mr. Hahn estimated the committee currently has about $30,000 in its treasury toward the construction.
The matching donation could be up to $20,000 if the committee can raise that much, Mr. Hahn added. He hoped the Borough Council will vote at Monday’s meeting to allow the committee to show a thermometer displaying the amount raised toward the bridge project.
The earliest fundraising effort will be all day Monday at the Americana Diner on Route 130 in East Windsor, where 20 percent of the customers’ bills will be donated to the bridge if diners tell the server they are eating for the bridge. A wine and cheesecake tasting event is slated for 7 p.m. Feb. 25 at the Hightstown Diner, with tickets going for $20 and all of the proceeds going to the bridge.
The bridge will go over the waterfall, exactly where the old bridge was. Instead of the cement slab design of the old bridge — which was removed after inspectors noticed it was literally breaking apart — the committee’s designs call for a prefabricated steel bridge decorated with several medallions, one of which was shown to the Borough Council at its Feb. 7 meeting.
Mr. Hahn said the medallions would symbolize the history of nearby Memorial Park and Hightstown until its founding, which would be symbolized by a flag medallion at one end of the bridge.
For more information on the bridge design and its progress, visit www.hightstownborough.com/boards-committees/greenway-bridge-committee.