Joint Borough-Township meeting reveals residents' discontent with recreation facilities

Teri McIntire, a Township resident, told members of the municipal governments to “step out of the sandbox, stop kicking sand at each other and get [park improvements] done.”

“We have 6-year-olds peeing in the bushes,” McIntire said, noting the need for restrooms in Princeton parks and the deteriorating condition of Community Park Pool. “We plead with you to please think of the young families [using the parks and the pool].”

The Princeton Recreation Department (PRD), a joint Borough-Township organization, hired Brandstetter Carroll, Inc., an architecture firm, to produce a report on possible improvements to park facilities.

The report’s key recommendations include upgrading the Community Park swimming pool, building an indoor community recreation center, installing synthetic turf athletic fields and building a network of walking trails to link parks and schools throughout both municipalities.

Patrick Hoagland and Wayne Bain, two Brandstetter Carroll employees, presented the report to the assembled residents last night. The report was based on focus groups that the firm held with Borough and Township residents.

The recreation center was the most expensive item in the $34 million plan. Hoagland said that the estimated cost of the center would be $15 million but noted that the facility would be crucial to Princeton’s recreational infrastructure.

“The community has been talking about a youth or teen center for over 30 years,” Hoagland said.

Arguing in support of building the center, Hoagland noted that he believes the University will soon revoke the PRD’s access to Dillon Gym and athletic fields on Washington Road. Many Recreation Department programs currently utilize these facilities, Hoagland explained.

Kristin Appelget, the University’s director of community and regional affairs, said in an interview after the meeting that the University has no current plans to revoke PRD’s access to University facilities and that the Brandstetter Carroll employees may have misinterpreted what University officials told them.

“University officials cautioned that it is a possibility that in the future [the Recreation Department] may not have the same access to the facilities that they do now” in the event that Dillon Gym were renovated or there were a change in the use of the soccer fields, Appelget explained. For the foreseeable future, however, the PRD will continue to have access to the facilities, she noted.

The report from Brandstetter Carroll recommended that the municipalities attempt to finance a large part of the renovations through donations, sponsorships and endowments, rather than through additional taxation.

Township Administrator James Pascale noted that 80 percent of the cost of constructing the new public library was financed through private fundraising.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

The Borough Council and the Township Committee unanimously voted to accept the report at the end of the meeting. The report will be presented to the Princeton community and discussed in each municipality before any plans are approved.