Officials spoke this week on improvements made since Burlington County launched its Municipal Park Development Grant Program.
The way Evesham Township manager Tom Czerniecki sees it, just because the township has added multiple new fields and sports facilities to the town in recent years, that doesn’t mean the township should forget the parks and recreation it already has.
With that in mind, Czerniecki said improvements to existing facilities had become so “dramatic” in recent years that he wanted council to get an overview of what the township has been doing to improve its existing parks and playgrounds since 2010.
That was the year Burlington County launched its Municipal Park Development Grant Program, which sees the county earmark millions each year from a preservation trust fund to assist municipalities with projects related to parks and recreation.
“We deal with a lot of issues, and the things that give us a lot of satisfaction, because they’re consistent, are the small things, such as when we improve a lot of sidewalks, improve a lot of roads and when we improve the small parks,” Czerniecki said.
According to Czerniecki, director of community development Nancy Jamanow has run much of the park improvement effort with funding through the county grants, so he asked Jamanow to give a presentation on the improvements at this week’s Evesham Township Council meeting.
According to Jamanow, the township received its first park grant from the county in 2010 and 2011 for work at Evesboro Downs, where the township improved the football fields, installed a new irrigation system and erected fencing.
In 2012, Jamanow said the township used a grant to remove an older playground at Memorial Park that was splintering and replaced it with new, safer equipment.
“That is still well used,” Jamanow said.
For 2013, Jamanow said the township focused on improvements to three neighborhood parks at Brush Hollow Park, Heathrow Park and Cambridge Park.
At Brush Hollow, the township replaced the basketball courts, improved the pathways, added benches and replaced swings.
For Heathrow Park, the township replaced the basketball court, removed an old hockey court, installed a tennis court, installed benches and replaced swings as well.
For Cambridge Park, the township replaced the parking lot and installed concrete sidewalks.
In 2014, Jamanow said Evesboro Downs was the township’s focus once again, at which time the township paved the driveway at the park, eliminating the dirt and dust that would fill the air and bother nearby residents when families would come to and from the facility in large numbers for football practice.
Jamanow said the township also installed a playground at that time.
Also in 2014, Jamanow said the township was able to work at Willow Ridge Park by improving the soccer field and installing benches.
For 2015, Jamanow said funds were approved and the work is being done now to improve the tennis and basketball courts and Country Farms and Green Lane Farms, as well as improve the tennis court at the Ravenscliff development.
Jamanow said this fall would also see new tot lots at the Country Farms, Glen Eyre and Heathrow developments.
“That’s just a brief update of the parks that we’ve been focusing on for the last seven years, trying to update everything and improve the neighborhoods,” Jamanow said.
