Eighteen building trades students from two campuses of the Middlesex County Vocational and Technical Schools (MCVTS) have been working on projects in county parks under a state grant program.
The grant from the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation provided wages for students from the MCVTS East Brunswick campus to build a footbridge in Jamesburg Park in East Brunswick, and for students from the Piscataway campus to construct and raise birdhouses for kestrels, the smallest species of falcons, in Davidson Mill Pond Park in South Brunswick, according to information provided by MCVTS.
The projects were supervised by the Middlesex County Department of Parks and Recreation and MCVTS staff.
“The students did a really good job,” David Williams, an MCVTS cooperative education coordinator, said in the statement.
The grant funds will allow students to continue working on similar projects during the summer, said Renee Davis, MCVTS supervisor of special education. She praised the program for offering paid work experience to the students.
Plans are for the students to work on landscaping, maintenance and the assembly of a gazebo on the grounds of the Raritan Valley YMCA in East Brunswick.