Politics & Government

Oceanport Hopes to Spruce Up Trinity Park

The Parks and Recreation Committee will apply for a county grant for the 'complete redevelopment' of the small neighborhood park.

Tucked behind Main Street in a neighborhood off Arcana Avenue, Trinity Park in Oceanport has seen better days. Clumps of grass shoot up between cracks on the basketball court, and the benches around the perimeter are speckled with patches of rust and peeling paint. The tennis court net has been long-gone and the ground cover for the relatively new tot lot is made up of unfriendly wooden chips.

The Parks and Recreation Committee has targeted the park to be the recipient of a county grant it will apply for later this month. Joanne Hunt, the committee's new coordinator, asked the Oceanport Borough Council for its support of the application at its meeting last week and to fund half of the renovation using the borough's open space fund.

"The park is underutilized and in extremely poor condition," Hunt said at the Sept. 6 meeting of the 1.25 acre pocket park. "People just aren't going to that park."

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The project, budgeted at $408,000, would include:

  • new concrete walkway leveled with the rest of the park
  • evergreen landscaping
  • removal of the existing water fountain
  • safety surfacing for the tot lot
  • 3 new benches and picnic tables
  • resurfacing of basketball and tennis courts
  • replacement of basketball backboards and nets
  • replacement of tennis court net

Hunt said that the renovation was in line with the borough's master plan, which was last updated in 2008.

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If the borough does not receive the full amount of the grant, Hunt said the park's renovation could easily be done in phases. She said her goal was to reopen the park the the public by September 2013.

Oceanport Recreation Committee Chair Mike Minervini thanked the council for its support later in the meeting. "It really is a mess over there," he said of the park.


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