Public hearing held for Green Acres grant to rehabilitate Veterans Memorial Park

Egg Harbor Township officials opened a public hearing on the township’s Green Acres grant application for Veterans Memorial Park rehabilitation, presenting a project scope that would replace existing athletic surfaces, add lighting to improve safety and install new fencing around fields.

Recreation Director Rick Odette told the committee the application covers “Veterans Memorial Park Rehabilitation Phase 1” and that the environmental impact assessment finds the proposed work will have a negligible short-term and long-term effect because it replaces existing facilities and proposes no new impervious surfaces. Odette said the project would reconstruct the football/cheerleading game field, add lighting in two parking/practice areas and install new fencing at two locations in the park.

Odette also said the township’s cost estimate aligns with a hoped-for 25% reimbursement from Green Acres to offset capital costs and that proposed storm sewer piping may be required at existing low points within the football field. He described the project as intended to increase site safety, use efficiency and accessibility.

Public comment included Dominic Branca, representing the youth organization Head Over Downshift, who thanked the committee and said the field “was way overdue to be redone,” adding that the park “is 67 years old” as a historical reference to community use. Resident Victoria Shifler asked whether the project schedule would conflict with National Night Out in August; Odette said the township would not take actions that would interfere with that major event and acknowledged the timing could be a scheduling hurdle but that National Night Out would be preserved.

No final funding decision was made at the hearing; the Green Acres application will continue in the grant review process and any capital work would return to the township for contracting and scheduling if the grant is awarded.