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KINNELON - County awards $1.4 million for open space purchase
(by Deborah Walsh - Staff Writer - November 19, 2008)
KINNELON - There was more good news last week for advocates of preserving the Weber tract. The borough will receive $1.4 million from Morris County’s Preservation Trust Fund for the acquisition of the property, which virtually makes its preservation a lock.
The Morris County Board of Freeholders approved spending $23,093,836 to help fund 21 preservation projects in 16 municipalities. The borough was awarded the full amount it asked for in its application.
Councilman Robert Collins, who chairs the borough’s open space committee, said the $1.4 million might be the largest grant award the borough has ever received. Collins said borough officials and proponents of the 169-acre Weber tract preservation are elated to receive the county’s support. The county rejected the borough’s grant application last November, but this time the borough was able to satisfy the county’s concerns. It now has a willing seller and funding partners for the project. Last year, it asked for $1.7 million. This year it did not ask for as much because it already had secured some funding.
"Some residents were passionate about preserving the property and the more people looked at it they realized how special the property was to the borough and the county," said Collins. "It’s nice to get back some of the open space money we’re sending to the county."
The Morris County Park Commission, which wants to take 63 acres of the Weber tract to expand Silas Condict Park, has committed to chipping in $500,000. Additionally, the borough has secured two Planning Incentive Grants in recent years from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Green Acres Program in the amount of $600,000, which can be channeled toward the Weber tract purchase.
In July, Collins said the borough could utilize $300,000 of the $675,000 it has collected with its open space tax and approximately $4,000 in funds generated by a grass roots campaign to save the Weber tract spearheaded by Charles and Carol Vreeland of Valley Road.
Collins said the borough now has $2.8 million for the purchase, which does not take into consideration an unspecified amount of funding the United States Forestry Service through the Forestry Legacy Program has approved for the project. These forestry funds could result in the borough chipping in less funds than originally anticipated.
Collins said the purchase price is $2.8 million, and attorneys for Rose Weber and the borough are finalizing a contract, which should put the borough on track to close on the property next year.
After hearing about the $1.4 million grant award, Carol Vreeland thanked Councilman Collins, Mayor Glenn Sisco and the public for their continued support.
"We are thrilled," said Vreeland. "It is a worthwhile project and all our hopes and dreams have been vindicated with multiple sources of funding in place. The public’s support has been great."
When approving the grant, the freeholders noted that the acquisition will aid in the protection of water quality by providing a buffer to the Pequannock River (a Category 1 waterway), safeguarding threatened and endangered species’ habitats, and providing further access to passive recreation.
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