Englishtown Awarded County Grant to Help Buy 17 Main Street

Englishtown will be awarded a $95,000 grant by the Monmouth County Municipal Open Space Program to help offset the cost of purchasing 17 Main Street. The Englishtown Borough and Council approved a resolution to apply for the grant on Aug. 22.

The Borough would like to purchase 17 Main Street in order to convert into a municipal parking lot. The acquisition of this property qualfies for the Open Space Program since the lot would provide parking spaces for patrons of Sanford Park and Lake Weamaconck, therefore making it beneficial for recreational use within the municipality.

The Monmouth County Municipal Open Space Program does a 50 percent matching for all projects up to $250,000. Since the Englishtown Council has put forth an offer of $190,000 to purchase the property, the grant equates to $95,000, no more could be provided.

Monmouth County Freeholder John Curley sent a letter to the Englishtown Borough thanking them for nominating the acquisition of 17 Main Street property for one of the open space grant projects. Curley said there were 23 complete applications seeking more than $3.8 million in grant money and Englishtown was among the municipalities chosen.

The Monmouth County Freeholders will reach out to the Borough to let them know what the next steps are in order to execute the grant agreement, Business Administrator Laurie Finger said.

“The [$95,000] check is on a reimbursable basis," Finger said. "So, we have to act and purchase the property.”