Tinton Falls loses bid for open space funds

Tinton Falls loses bid for open space funds
Boro will revise application for county grant funding
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer

TINTON FALLS — Borough officials learned earlier this month that their pursuit of county open space funding for improvements at Liberty Park II has been rejected.

Borough Engineer David Marks, of T&M Associates, said in an interview last week that the Monmouth County Open Space Grant program notified the borough that the bid had been rejected.

“The application for this year was denied by the county,” he said. “At this point we don’t have any reasoning. The letter just said ‘Unfortunately the application will not be funded this year.’ ”

Marks admitted that the pursuit of county funding was a very competitive one.

“I believe there were 20-some towns that submitted applications and only a handful were funded,” he said.

Marks said he is planning to meet with county officials to get a better explanation on why the grant proposal was rejected and what, moving forward, a better plan would be.

“What we’d like to do is meet with the county open space program and discuss our application,” he said, “find out why the project wasn’t funded.

“We haven’t had an opportunity to schedule that with the county yet,” he added. “Once we understand the reasons for the denial, we can either improve our application and reapply for Liberty Park II or we can pursue a different project.”

Marks explained that after the meeting takes place, the borough will decide how to proceed in seeking open space funds.

“At this point we have quite a bit of flexibility,” he said. “Based on the meeting we have with the county, we will then determine whether or not to continue pursuing the grant funding for Liberty Park II for the next grant funding cycle or if we should pursue a different park altogether.”

The proposed sports complex improvements included upgrades to the parking lot, lighting for the football practice field, a tot lot, a playground area, a picnic area and expanded parking.

The process leading up to the grant application was contentious. When the rough draft of the proposal was presented to the council in October, several people involved with Pop Warner criticized the plan for not including lights for the football field. Marks explained that a subsequent meeting followed and a revised plan was sent to the county.

“After that meeting, I sat down with Pop Warner representatives and we discussed the goal of the project and what we needed to do,” Marks said. “They were onboard with the plan that was finally submitted to the county.

“I really think some of the Pop Warner members didn’t fully understand the scope of what we were proposing at the time.

“A lot of those improvements were incorporated into that initial plan. We were able to work things out with Pop Warner and they were onboard with the application,” he added.

As for a timeline, Marks said he is not sure when the meeting with the county will take place, but the borough has a lot of time to come up with a plan.

“The grants won’t be due again until the end of summer, so we have plenty of time to come up with a plan,” Marks said.

The park is located on West Park Avenue in Tinton Falls and, according to Marks, the complex is 37 acres and contains football and softball fields, a dog park, two basketball courts, nature and jogging trails, and a concession stand as well as parking.

Contact Kenny Walter at

kwalter@gmnews.com.