Township Manager Kathy Burger announced that Medford has received a $24,000 grant from the State of New Jersey to improve and open a series of trails for biking and hiking located in Hartford Crossings Park, located at the corners of Church Road and Hartford Road.
The Township Council had authorized staff to prepare an application to construct over 10,000 linear feet of 6’ wide unpaved trails in the wooded areas of Hartford Crossings Park, a 120+ acre municipally owned athletic complex. Grant funds will be used for pre-fabricated bridges to transverse water tributaries that exist through the property, wood chips to provide soil stabilization along the trails, and facility amenities such as wayfaring signage, bike racks, and benches.
The Medford Township Council noted that several community groups have committed to provide volunteer labor and stewardship, including the Environmental Affairs Advisory Committee & a newly formed Hartford Trails Committee, which strengthened Medford’s proposal and serves as the matching contribution to the grant, thus minimizing the use of local tax dollars for the Hartford Trails Project.
The State approved 63 applications totaling $1,188,500 for recreational trail projects throughout New Jersey, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bob Martin stated. The funds come from the Federal Highway Administration’s Recreational Trails Program and are administered by the DEP’s Green Acres Program.
The goal of the Recreational Trails Program is to improve public access to open space, provide outdoor recreation opportunities, develop trail linkages, create urban and suburban trail corridors and provide sites and facilities for additional and improved hiking, biking, horseback riding, and off-highway vehicle activities.
For more information or to volunteer for the Hartford Trail Project, please call 609-654-2608 x338 or visit the Hartford Trails official Facebook page.