The Moorestown Township Council meeting on June 22 provided council with an update on the Lenola Jeff Young Memorial Park hockey rink and the announcement of a dedication ceremony for David Gentile on July 13 at 6:30 p.m.
Scott Taylor, the township’s landscape architect and vice president of Taylor Design Group, gave a presentation on the research he has done in regard to the hockey rink.
At a June council meeting, Township Manager Scott Carew mentioned the Jeff Young Memorial Park hockey rink, which was demolished last year, could be put back into commission and a portion of the Wesley Bishop Park dasher boards could be used.
At this meeting, Taylor gave further details and proposed recycling the hockey rink frame at Wesley Bishop Park, which will be removed, and relocating that to the rink at Jeff Young Memorial Park. The rink at Jeff Young Park is smaller than the Wesley Bishop Park rink, however the frame should still be able to be used. The dasher boards would have to be replaced.
There is still some budgeting that needs to be worked out, according to Carew, such as the dasher boards themselves. But by using the frame, it would reduce the money needed for the Jeff Young Memorial Park hockey rink.
As the Jeff Young Memorial Park rink is not used by an identifiable athletic association, there is no identifiable group for maintenance of the facility. The township is looking to put together a group to donate time and money for it. According to Carew, there have been people from Lenola who have expressed donating and volunteering time and effort to the rink.
The rink at Wesley Bishop Park is staying a rink as well. However, this rink is used by hockey associations as a competitive rink and is up to official size and standards. It is in need of an update because the terrain under the rink has some issues and the township must take out the entire rink to rebuild it. The township received a $250,000 grant from the county for the cost.
At the meeting, it was also announced the township will be having a dedication ceremony for David Gentile at the Recreation Center Lobby on July 13 at 6:30 p.m. before the next Moorestown Township Council meeting.
Gentile was a Moorestown High School football player who was paralyzed from the neck down in 1979. Gentile died in 2001 and his mother donated the funding for a 15,000 square-foot skatepark to be built in his name in Moorestown. Last year, the David Gentile Skatepark was taken down.
Not wanting Gentile’s name to disappear, township council decided to move his name to the tennis courts at Maple Dawson Park where Gentile used to play when he was a child.
For this occasion, the township is holding a ceremony, inviting Gentile’s mother and sister to come, where there will be a plaque placed on the wall inside the Recreation Center lobby in his name as well as a sign placed at the tennis courts.
The Recreation Center is located at 111 W. 2nd St.
