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Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 09/19/07

BY ALEX BIESE
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU

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SPRING LAKE — Local residents and members of the Borough Council heard a $300,000 plan for improvements to Marucci Park at the council's Tuesday night meeting.

Borough Engineer Peter Avakian, with Neptune-based Leon S. Avakian Inc., presented the plan, which includes making room for a new soccer and lacrosse field by realigning currently existing tee-ball and baseball fields.

The plan also involves converting one of the park's two full-sized basketball courts into an elementary-sized court and replacing the fencing around the park's five tennis courts, Avakian said.

Also scheduled is the expansion of the current field building to include a kitchen, a snack bar, new restrooms and a second-floor meeting room.

The 23-acre park is bordered by South Boulevard and Third Avenue.

Borough resident David Frost, president of Spring Lake-Sea Girt Little League, said the construction of the new restroom facilities was at the top of the reasons for the improvements to Marucci Park. For the past 20 years, visitors to the park have had to choose between a restroom facility on the far reaches of the fields or portable restrooms closer by, he said.

"We started talking to the council probably two years ago when we heard some of these grants were out there," Frost said.

Acting Borough Clerk Jane L. Gillespie said Tuesday the total estimated cost of the project is $300,000, and the borough was expected to file an application for a $150,000 grant from the Monmouth County Municipal Open Space Grant Program today. The remaining $150,000 would be paid for by the borough, Gillespie said.

Any municipality receiving the grant is required by the county to match the amount it receives, Avakian said. The county has said money from the grant could not be used to fund maintenance or operations in municipal parks, he said.

"It made us a little more innovative in our thought process," Avakian said. "The emphasis is on new use for the benefit of the town."

The borough expects to receive a response from the county regarding the grant application by late December or early January 2008, Gillespie said.

If the borough receives the grant, Avakian said, it will then create design plans for the park and go out to bid for the project.