Politics & Government
Freeholders, RRA Support Green Acres
Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the Rahway River Association approve of Public Question No. 1.
Union County Freeholder Bette Jane Kowalski joined the Rahway River Association and New Jersey’s Keep It Green Campaign at a Rahway park Tuesday to tout a state bond issue supporting $400 million for open space preservation.
“Public Question No. 1” or The Green Acres, Water Supply and Floodplain Protection, and Farmland and Historic Preservation Bond Act of 2009, calls for the state to issue bonds for land purchasing and preservation. The act would cost households less than $1 per month for preservation efforts. Voters will get their say in the November 3 election.
“Cranford is in the middle of the Union County park system,” said Kowalski. “Residents have access to Sperry, McConnell, Nomahegan, Lenape, and more. Parks have become an integral part of the Cranford experience.”
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If passed, $400 million would be invested in the New Jersey Green Acres Program, as well as in farmland and historic preservation. Of that $400 million, $218 million would go to Green Acres, a program that provides grants and loans to acquire land for state parks and wildlife management areas; $146 million to farmland preservation; $24 million for Blue Acres, a program administered by the Green Acres program that acquires flood-prone properties; and $12 million for historic preservation.
While the existence of county parks in Cranford won’t be threatened if the referendum fails, the county would see a cut in funding for park improvements, Kowalski said.
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“Without [the bond] we’d have a New Jersey without the Garden State,” said Dennis Miranda, executive director of the Rahway River Association (RRA).
The RRA is known for its attempts to organize townships along the river to jointly participate in river cleanup efforts and educational programs. Financial troubles forced the group to postpone projects and meetings in 2009. The association met for the first time this year with plans to ambitiously expand its agenda.
Joined by Keep It Green Campaign chair Tom Gilbert, the trio talked to RRA volunteers and members of the press at the Rahway Riverfront Park and butterfly garden. The park was built at the site of a landfill with Green Acres funding. The speakers pointed to the park as an example of the possibilities such a referendum can offer.
The Keep It Green Campaign consists of 135 nonprofits across N.J. in support of the Green Acres bond measure. Click here for more information on the bond.
Cranford’s Environmental Commission recommended the bond to the township committee in early September. The committee has yet to decide whether to endorse it.
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