At today’s Monmouth County Freeholder meeting, the board passed Resolution No. 2014-0059 to allow the $10.6 million purchase of 87.88 acres of land in Aberdeen to be added to New Park in Aberdeen and Marlboro townships. The Port Authority’s cost-share that the agency failed to provide will now be funded via county open space coffers.
“The Monmouth County Freeholders led by Freeholders Burry and Arnone, Aberdeen Mayor Fred Tagliarini and its Council together with the Baykeeper and the Monmouth Conservation Foundation have done a tremendous job to create this park, which was several years in the making due to unthinkable complications,” Senator Joe Kyrillos (R-Monmouth) said in a statement commending today’s action that will add an additional 90 acres of Aberdeen Township open space for a new 250 acre Monmouth County park. “They have set an example for the rest of New Jersey and its local governments in finding a creative open space solution that will benefit generations to come.
“The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, on the other hand,” Kyrillos continued in his statement, “has once again demonstrated government at its worst and proved to be an untrustworthy public entity, by reneging on its years-long obligation to fund about half of this project. The Port Authority further lost the public’s trust by failing to hold up their end in a compromise with the freeholders that would have allowed the agency to reduce its cost share by $2 million to fulfill its obligation. Thank goodness for the leadership of Monmouth’s Freeholders along with the Baykeeper.”
