Eco-Park Contract OK’d By Woodbine Council

WOODBINE – Borough Council, at its Feb. 1 meeting, approved a contract with Charles Marandino, LLC for approximately $700,000 for Phase One of its Open Space Eco-Park Project.
A preconstruction meeting is scheduled for Feb. 15 to kick off this project so that it will be ready for summer activities.
Funding for this project was received from freeholders under the Open Space program, according to Mayor William Pikolycky.
With that funding, the borough will be able to preserve a 25-acre wooded tract adjacent to the Woodbine Elementary School. It will develop a facility which includes active and passive recreation opportunities. These will have a strong orientation towards environmental enrichment and enhancement of the area’s ecological values.
Major components of this project include environmental interpretative stations, fitness stations, walking trails, a general purpose field, pavilion, gazebo, bike racks, benches, picnic tables, and related amenities which will help to position Woodbine and the Cape May County Eco-Park and Recreation Area as a destination for cyclists, equestrians, and pedestrians.
It will also serve as a setting for a “classroom in nature” for students and visitors who can appreciate the qualities of this site.
It will not only enhance and expand opportunities for borough residents but also for visitors who bicycle and hike on the many state and national trail systems which converge in Woodbine and will eventually be part of the county-wide bikeway system.
It will also link to other important resources such as Belleplain State Forest, and Cape May County’s first instructional site of The Richard Stockton University of New Jersey at Anne Azeez Hall at the Sam Azeez Museum of Woodbine Heritage.
The Eco-Park and Recreation Area are immediately adjacent to the Cape May County Library Branch and the Woodbine School.
This 25-acre wooded track situated in the center of town and at the convergence of the Coastal Heritage Trail, High Point to Cape May Trail, the Bayshore Heritage Byway, and the Pine Barrens Byway.
“Currently we have a NJDOT bikeways project out to bid which will complement this project, bringing the total capital investment using county and state grant funding to a total of $1 million,” added Pikolycky. “This project would not have been possible without the support of the freeholders and Open Space Board who share in the borough’s vision of creating an eco-park as part of the County Park System.”