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Friends of Beach Haven seek council support for heritage walking tour
Summary
Friends of Beach Haven presented a plan for a 20–25-sign heritage walking tour with QR-linked content and asked the council to sponsor grant applications and assist with sign installation; organizers say they can raise local sponsorships so no taxpayer dollars would be needed for the trail’s initial rollout.
Ken Rubin, representing Friends of Beach Haven, asked the Borough Council on Thursday to back two projects to celebrate local history: a heritage walking tour of roughly 20–25 interpretive signs and a separate historic-district street-sign initiative. "My name is Ken Rubin. It's nice to be here again," Rubin said in opening remarks, and he walked council members through a sample sign and a plan for QR codes linking each marker to website content and short videos.
Rubin said Friends of Beach Haven would seek a grant that could contribute about $75,000 toward the larger sign program and that the local group would raise roughly $25,000 in sponsorships to match that grant. "We think we could do the entire Heritage Trail without one nickel of taxpayer dollars," Rubin told the council. He asked the council to authorize the borough to be a signatory on any grant application and to provide help with installation where markers must be placed on public land.
Council members expressed general support and suggested the borough’s public-works crew could assist with installation; one member said public-works staff would likely be "more than happy to do the installation." Rubin also described a second, smaller effort to add about 30 metal historic-district clip-on signs above existing street signs at an estimated cost of about $5,000 in total, for which Friends would also pursue grant funding.
The council did not take formal action on the request at Thursday’s session but signaled interest in the concept, encouraged formation of a community committee to select sites and images, and said it would consider lending support for any required grant applications. The group indicated it would return with finalized grant paperwork and details if the council wanted to proceed.
Next steps: Friends of Beach Haven will continue fundraising and design work and may return to the council to request formal sign-on for grant applications or permission to place markers on borough property.
