Boro to spend $220K for repairs to Wolcott Park
Funds slated for 80 Acre Park to be used for upgrades
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

EATONTOWN - Wolcott Park's playing fields will get a much-needed makeover now that the borough has found some money originally set aside for another municipal park.

As it stands now, the Borough Council expects to spend only about $220,000 of the $275,000 bond that it had once designated for the much newer 80 Acre Park, which is situated off Wall Street.

The bond money will be used to help repair or replace fences, backstops, bleachers, drainage systems, and other features of the baseball and softball fields at Wolcott Park, in accordance with a resolution unanimously approved by the council at its brief Nov. 21 meeting.

The newest resolution amends one passed by the council on Nov. 8 that authorized Ed Broberg, the borough's consulting engineer, to apply to the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders for $250,000 in open space funding for the park.

After learning that the $275,000 bond for the 80 Acre Park could be applied to the older Wolcott facility, which has not seen renovations since 1983, the borough chose to use its own funds instead of hitting up the county government, explained Mayor Gerald J. Tarantolo.

"We decided that the [80 Acre Park] money would be better used for Wolcott," Tarantolo said on Monday.

Those repairs, which Broberg has said he hopes to carry out over the coming winter, are the first phase of a larger rehabilitation project targeting the park, located off Willow Street.

Weather permitting, the repairs to the fields will be completed in time for the start of the spring sports season in March, said Broberg, of Middletown-based T&M Associates.

During the council's Nov. 8 workshop meeting, Broberg had suggested that the borough have existing fences at the playing fields removed by the borough's public works department as a cost-cutting measure.

The newest resolution will authorize Broberg to prepare the plans and specifications for any contractor who might bid upon the project.

At a later stage, Wolcott could see other repairs to its walkways, a storage building, parking lots, and other recreational facilities, Broberg has said.

Under the engineer's preferred timeline, those repairs and renovations would continue at the park into the fall of 2007 with the expected completion in spring of 2008.

Under discussion by the council since last spring, the renovations to Wolcott are tied in with plans to revitalize Eatontown's historic downtown section along state Route 35.

Both Wolcott and nearby Wampum Park are located adjacent to the borough's downtown, which extends from Throckmorton Avenue to Broad Street.