FROM THE INDEPENDENT PRESS (NJN Publishing)
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
By PAT KELLEY
MILLBURN -- Township officials will soon discuss whether they will loan the Downtown Millburn Development Alliance the money needed to develop the River Walk project which last summer was awarded a $600,000 reimbursement grant by Congress.
According to Mayor Dan Baer, a loan is one of the options under consideration to initially fund the project so the DMDA can be reimbursed by the U.S. Department of Transportation for the project costs. Another option would be to incorporate the project into the greater downtown re-development plan and have a developer fund all or part of the project, the mayor said.
Township and DMDA officials recently met with representatives from the DOT and the North Jersey Transportation Plan Authority (NJTPA) to discuss the administration and guidelines of the grant. Since the funding is set up to be a reimbursement of actual project expenses, the DMDA must first come up with the money to implement the project.
The DMDA is in "the very preliminary planning stages" of defining the project, said the group's president Becky Greenberg, who added, "It's a work in progress."
"We have an opportunity to do something really nice for the downtown," Ms. Greenberg said.
The project was originally defined loosely as a river walk along the west branch of the Rahway River linking the Paper Mill Playhouse to the downtown.
Although no concrete plans were presented to Congress in applying for the grant, the term River Walk came to mean some type of downtown improvement project involving pedestrian flow. Last year DMDA officials said it would be very difficult to actually build a walk along the river, so, at one point they were considering building a "walk of stars" following existing sidewalks from the Paper Mill to the clock plaza on Essex Street. The walk was described as a well-lit promenade with murals on the train overpass near the Middle School, possibly with stars embedded in the sidewalk immortalizing Paper Mill performers.
Ms. Greenberg said last week that the walk probably will follow the river, but she said no definite plans have been set as to what the project would actually be like.
"We want what's best for the town," the mayor said. He said he planned to meet with DMDA officials this week to discuss how they must fulfill their obligations to NJTPA. They would also discuss how to best obtain up-front funding for the project.
"I'm willing to open the discussion on how we'd move forward with the DMDA as a partner," Mayor Baer said. He said one option would be to establish a memorandum of agreement between the township and the DMDA and have the municipality function as project manager on the project. He added that even if the town lends the DMDA the money, it would all be re-paid and would in the end cost taxpayers nothing.
He also wants to examine how the River Walk project would fit into the downtown re-development project that is currently in the early planning stages. If the project is incorporated into development plans he said he may be able to get a private developer to fund it.