The National Association of Counties has awarded the Burlington County Board of Chosen Freeholders with a 2014 Achievement Award for its Municipal Park Development Grant Program.
NACo congratulated the freeholders and everyone involved with for their dedication to developing this innovative program, now in its fifth year. The program has been used to build and improve local parks, trails, ball fields and other recreational facilities.
“When we created this program our goals were to assist the municipalities, all of which had been hit hard by the struggling economy, and to allow those towns that pay the farmland preservation and open space tax but that do not have farmland to preserve to participate in the program in a meaningful way,” said Freeholder Director Bruce Garganio. “To date we have awarded nearly $20 million dollars and the worthwhile projects these awards have facilitated are visible throughout the county. We look forward to the new opportunities that future rounds of grants will offer to our townships.”
Among the projects funded by previous rounds of the county’s Municipal Park Development Program, Mt. Laurel created a community garden to give their residents an opportunity to experience gardening by providing small plots to plant flowers or vegetables.
The grant program is funded through the county’s dedicated Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund.
