By Vita Duva
HOLMDEL – Despite the infamous groundhog’s recent prediction for six more weeks of winter, the township is forging ahead with the promise of spring – and a new pedestrian and bicycle path.
Last month, during the Holmdel Township Committee’s reorganization meeting, committeewoman Cathy Weber announced that the municipality has received a grant from the Monmouth County Open Space Program. The award totaling $114,000 will be used to fund the township’s Pedestrian and Bikeway Plan Project.
The grant money, which is said to have been matched by the township, will see through the Phase 1 construction of a new off-road pedestrian and bicycle path across town. The path will finally connect Holmdel High School to Bell Works, F&F Nurseries and Bayonet Farms through to Village School and ultimately into Thompson Park and Holmdel Park.
“This was a highly competitive effort and I am very excited,” Weber said during the January meeting.
“I want to just thank all of the members of the traffic and bike safety committee who worked really hard on this for the last year and I would also like to thank our township officials, Barbara Kovaleski and Cherron Rountree, for their tremendous support.”
The 25-year resident of Holmdel went on to say, “It is really, really nice to see citizens of our community coming together with an initiative and putting in the elbow grease and work, and partnering with the township and the county to provide new opportunities for our residents to get out and about and make use of our beautiful park system and be able to connect our schools and our parks together so we can get more people walking and biking and out of their cars.”
In response to Weber’s report that same evening, Holmdel Mayor Gregory Buontempo expressed that it was “outstanding news.”
“I appreciate all of the work that you and the team put in on this,” he said. “I know you had countless meetings over many months and it is great to see it coming to reality very, very soon. Very exciting.”
“I did not know that the township was doing that. I think it is a great idea,” Megan Volker told The Two River Times while walking her Australian shepard, Rogan, in Holmdel Park Wednesday morning.
The Fair Haven resident went onto express that while she frequents Holmdel Park with Rogan, she also felt it was a smart and safe idea to have a path that connects different parks across the township.
“I grew up around here with all of the farms, and having the opportunity and making the time to spend outside is so important,” Volker said.
While the municipality has already set the new plan into motion, there are still many aspects of the project that need to be worked though. Currently the project’s timeline has the path being constructed in late spring and ready for use by early fall. The finalization of the path design is being worked on now through Feb. 28 with the help of an engineer.
“I am thrilled with this grant from the county and the ability to collaborate on this path to increate accessibility and connectivity for both residents of Holmdel and the greater community,” Weber told The Two River Times.
“What I am super excited about is that the majority of this will be off-road and allow an easy and safe way for people to walk, get across town and into nature. It is an absolutely beautiful space,” she said.
“If we have learned anything from the coronavirus pandemic, it is how important the opportunity to get out and enjoy outdoor space is.”
This article originally appeared in the Feb. 17-23, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
