Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes presents West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh with a ceremonial check representing the second half of the $448,500 Mercer at Play grant. The township received the grant for its Duck Pond Park project which includes the tennis and basketball courts pictured.
Mercer County Executive Brian M. Hughes has announced that West Windsor Township is the latest municipality to benefit from the Mercer at Play program with a $224,250 County grant for Phases 3 and 4 of the township’s Duck Pond Park development on Meadow Road, half of the total $448,500 County grant for the project.
Hughes created the unique matching grant program in 2006 to encourage municipalities to team up to create or rehabilitate active recreation areas such as athletic fields and parks, and receive a matching grant from Mercer County. The Duck Pond Park development is one of the final projects in the Mercer at Play program through which Mercer County, with Board of Chosen Freeholders approval, has allocated $6.5 million in grants for 20 projects across all 12 municipalities.
Duck Pond Park, located on Meadow Road between Clarksville and Bear Brook roads, includes more than 120 acres, about half of which is mostly wooded upland and lowland nature preserve while the remaining 60 acres is devoted to active recreation. Currently, the park includes three illuminated soccer fields, two tennis courts, two basketball courts, one beach volleyball court, about a mile of walking paths, picnic areas and a pond.
Through Mercer at Play, municipalities could seek funding for outdoor recreational facilities such as playing fields, playgrounds, skate parks or walking trails and indoor uses such as swimming pools, gymnasiums or weight rooms. Projects done cooperatively by two or more municipalities were eligible for a 100 percent matching grant from the County, while individual municipal projects could receive a 50 percent matching grant.
Projects funded under the program have been diverse and innovative, ranging from bocce courts in Robbinsville to a skate park in Princeton to a four-municipality project to redevelop 51 acres of the former Twin Pines Airport in Lawrence into athletic fields.
