By Allison Perrine
HIGHLANDS – The borough is seeking grant funding for long-anticipated rehabilitation work to the Snug Harbor Skate Park at the intersection of Bay and Snug Harbor avenues. Officials discussed the matter last Wednesday.
During the Sept. 1 council meeting, the borough held a public hearing on an application to pursue a $250,000 matching grant from the county to support the improvement project, estimated to cost a total of $583,110. It would include the installment of new skate equipment, a fresh layout design and the replacement of the existing asphalt surface, among other ammenities.
The narrow parcel sits along Snug Harbor Avenue adjacent to a basketball court and the borough’s community center. It contains a few slightly rusted skate ramps and railings atop an asphalt surface, but it has not been open to the public since last September; the site is currently under an environmental investigation with cleanup in progress.
Residents have been asking for a revamp of the park for some time. In 2013, resident John Eikens created the “Reboot Highlands Skatepark” Facebook page hoping to address “years of neglect” and damage to the park following Super Storm Sandy. It now has 185 likes and 189 followers.
“The park was really unsafe. The ramps – every year they would move them for the Clam Fest, and every time they moved them, they would just get more and more damaged,” Eikens told The Two River Times this week. He said a revamp could be “financially good” for the town due to the tourism it could bring.
The Eikens family, including their young son Jack Eikens, spoke to the then-mayor and council about the importance of upgrading the park years ago. When elected officials seemed uninterested, they contacted the company that built the Long Branch skate park and ideas were drafted from there, but at the time, “the town wasn’t really behind it,” he said.
The new mayor, Carolyn Broullon, and current governing body see it otherwise, Eikens said. Broullon reached out to Eikens to discuss the plans and the town sought out grants. This June, the borough applied for Green Acres and Urban Parks funds through the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to help pay for the upgrades. As of Sept. 1, the borough had not been notified whether or not it received any funding.
Officials also worked with Spohn Ranch Skateparks to create a conceptual design of what the new park could look like. Councilman Donald Melnyk said “many residents sent in letters of support” for the project that were attached to the grant submissions in June. Those letters will be resubmitted with the application for the county grant, said Kelsey Howard of Colliers Engineering & Design, who spoke at the Sept. 1 meeting.
The latest application is for a Monmouth County Open Space grant in which recipients are eligible for matching grants up to $250,000. The estimated total of the project will be $583,110 and according to Eikens, the town has some funds allocated to renovate the parks in town. He is prepared to help fundraise for anything needed to cover the rest, if necessary.
The county allocates $2 million each year from its Open Space Trust Fund for the cooperative projects with area municipalities, according to its website. The funds can be used for land acquisitions, park developments, recreation and other open space purposes. The program is administered by the county park system on behalf of county commissioners.
In 2020, the county awarded funds for 23 projects, some of which were in the Two River area. They included Atlantic Highlands, $85,000 for Many Mind Park improvements; Holmdel, $200,000 for Allocco Park playground improvements; Oceanport, $150,000 for Community Center Park improvements; Sea Bright, $80,000 for Phase II work to the Shrewsbury Riverfront Park; and Tinton Falls, $127,000 for Liberty Park dog park improvements.
The skate park is just one site of several that the borough is looking to fix up this year. In March, the governing body laid out a list of goals to accomplish in 2021 which included bringing new equipment to all borough parks, including the skate park, and to update electric, lighting and water at borough parks. Some other goals were to address runoff issues at Monmouth Hills; complete pump upgrades in some locations; enter the Community Rating System program for lower flood insurance; categorize and scan records; and validate all borough-owned property, among several others.
The article originally appeared in the September 9 – 15, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
