N.B. 'board'ers on building a skate park
Parks & Rec. Committee is supportive, depending on location and cost
BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer

NORTH BRUNSWICK - After several weeks of discussion, the idea of adding a skate and bike park in town seems to be rolling along.

Councilman Carlo Socio, who is the township liaison to the Parks & Recreation Advisory Committee, said the board is "supportive" of the initiative, but needs to decide on the cost, funding options and an appropriate location.

"Everything right now is a question of money and how we are going to get it," he said.

Years ago, Socio said the committee contemplated constructing a skate park across the street from the municipal complex on Hermann Road, near what is now the September 11 Memorial. He said the park should be highly "visible" and "well traveled" but the board members want to make sure the sanctity of the memorial is kept in tact.

"This is a non-organized sport. That's good because it's good to see the kids…expressing athleticism and creativity in an individual sense," he said.

At the council workshop meeting on Monday, a concern arose that a new library was to be constructed on that particular site.Mayor Francis "Mac"Womack said that Hermann Road is a good area to expand municipal services, because the township complex, police department, senior center and middle school are close by.

He said an analysis of the area is needed, which perhaps is part of the township's master plan, and Socio added that a schematic of the general vision of the area 10 years into the future is also needed.

On the other hand, Councilman Ralph Andrews said that if the proposed transit village concept for the former Johnson & Johnson property on Route 1 includes a new library, that issue could be averted.

Michael Hritz, the township's director of community development, said he built a skate park in the last municipality he worked for, and said that a skate park is best suited in an existing park because drainage, landscaping and access are needed and thus already available.

Councilman Bob Davis mentioned the skate park being incorporated into Phase II of the North Brunswick Community Park.

Lou Ann Benson, the director of the Department of Parks, Recreation & Community Services, said a skateboard park was listed as a projected use there, but that public information sessions have not yet begun on Phase II so nothing is definitive.

She also said a survey is being sent out with her department's spring brochure to solicit input from residents about what components they would like in the new park on Route 130.

Davis then commented that Phase II construction may be too far into the future, and that a more timely solution is needed for the 100-by-100-foot new skate park.

However, Andrews cautioned that, "Wherever you put this, you [have to] make sure kids can get to this and don't have to be driven anywhere," which were concerns raised by skaters themselves at a past meeting, most of whom do not have a driver's license.

Although Babbage Park was suggested, Socio said the area may be too isolated and "could become an attractive nuisance" not for the skaters themselves but for youths in general.

In December, a group of skateboarders and bikers approached the Township Council with a petition signed by over 500 residents supporting a designated area for them, because they claimed teenagers were being arrested for skating on the high school property.

Parents Valerie Molnar and Melissa Constantinou brought forth information about the specifics of constructing a park, which have already been built in South Brunswick, Edison, Sayreville and Franklin.