The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
The Open Space Advisory Committee on October 21 voted to recommend a scaled-down version of Catalpa Park to the Township Council.
The Committee had earlier narrowly defeated a motion to recommend the full version of the park, targeted for the Catalpa Farm property at Old Vliet and South Middlebush roads.
The version the Committee recommended – called “Option 4” – is estimated to cost $4.7 million, while the full “Option 1” plan was estimated to cost $9.3 million.
Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said at the Committee’s September meeting that the Township Council would act on whatever the Committee recommended.
The plan the Committee recommended will include cricket pitches, a community garden, a tot lot, a bathroom, and a parking lot.
The full plan includes cricket pitches, two basketball courts, a pickleball court, two tennis courts, a bocce ball area, a corn hole area, a horseshoe pit, as well as a large pavilion area and grill area, a larger playground area that has a bathroom. There is also planned a 67-car parking lot, as well as a community garden.
Committee member Arnold Schmidt led the charge against the full option, questioning the use of asphalt to pave walking areas and parking lots, rather than crushed stone.
“From the research I’ve done recently, it appears that the use of asphalt is about four times the cost of crushed stone,” Schmidt said. “It’s also my understanding that it’s much more difficult to snow plow crushed stone or gravel. However, looking at this park, it’s not really a winter park for the most part. Based on the snow we’ve been getting over the past several years and climate change, I wonder how many days of parking would actually be lost without plowing.”
“I don’t believe there’s any reason to plow that 67-vehicle parking lot, and therefore, what need is there for an expensive asphalt parking lot?” Schmidt asked. “The other parking lot for 86 vehicles, I believe, accommodates the playground area … bocce ball, horseshoes, and cornhole are also, for the most part, summer, spring, and fall games, or sports.”
“And I wonder if losing the use of all these amenities for the few days a year when it snows versus likely the many hundreds of thousands of dollars or more we could save by not using hot, mixed asphalt, is worth this trade-off,” he said. “We need asphalt for the parking lots and for the full length of the walking paths, but it’s four times the cost of crushed stone.”
Schmidt also questioned the size of the proposed playground, saying that it is larger than the playground in Middlebush Park.
Option 4, he said, would allow for the community garden to be placed nearer to the playground and reduce the number of trees that would have to be cut down.
Schmidt also questioned the use of decorative benches, as opposed to plain benches.
Darren Mazzei, the Township’s consulting engineer, said plain benches would not be appropriate to use in a $9 million park.
Mazzei also said that the asphalt paving was approved by the Committee “years ago,” and was requested by the Township Department of Public Works.
“I believe part of the reason why DPW had asked for the asphalt was because the gravel requires maintenance, and they’re going to have to go out there and replenish it because, obviously, the gravel gets kicked off,” he said.
Committee member Robyn Suydam made a motion to recommend Option 1, with a cap of $9 million. That motion was voted down by a 5-4 vote.
After some further discussion about reducing the size of gazebos to save money, Committee member Mary Lauko moved that the committee recommend Option 4.
That motion passed by a vote of 6-3, with one abstention.
Discussion on the park dates back to 2013, when the Open Space Committee was presented with plans for the as-yet-unnamed park. Construction has been delayed many times since then, the latest being in 2018.
Since then, the plan has suffered numerous delays, ranging from the Covid-19 pandemic shutdown to the discovery of a box turtle on the property and realignment of a driveway, which led to delays getting needed state Department of Environmental Protection permits.
It didn’t help that DEP officials lost the Township’s permit application during that time, as Vornlocker disclosed during the September 16 meeting.
The issue was brought to the Committee at its September meeting after the Township Council on September 9 rejected all bids on the park because the lowest bid – $9.3 million, submitted by Picerno-Giordano Construction of Kenilworth – was about $4 million more than had been budgeted.
Vornlocker said at the September Committee meeting that should Option 1 be chosen, the Township would bond for the remaining $4 million.
He said that’s not a big problem because the Township will soon retire the one remaining bond that it is paying off.
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