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Ocean County Announces Plans To Purchase Four Farms, Begin "Rail Trail"
By Bill McLaughlin
Ocean County Freeholder John Bartlett announced Wednesday plans to purchase through the Natural Lands Trust Fund four farms in the Jackson-Plumsted area. All are working farms which will be maintained in their present state forever, Bartlett said.
"It remains a farm, it pays taxes, there will never be development on the property," the Freeholder said.
If the purchases, which will be split 60 percent by the federal Natural Lands program and 40 percent locally, are approved at the board's June 7 meeting, the county will have spent $1,368,000 to lock up private rural lands.
"We're pulling together an impressive swath of property," Bartlett said. He added that when the county first began buying lands to preserve the rural atmosphere, critics complained it was a hodge-podge effort. But subsequent purchases have turned the program into connecting blocks of farm land.
The Nash farm in Plumsted will be purchased through Open Space funds and adjoins land already purchased by the county Natural Lands Trust and is amid properties owned by the federal government and state DEP.
"It had a $500,000 asking price and we negotiated down to $450,000," Bartlett said of the 56-acre tract.
The other three were bought through the Natural Lands Trust Fund. The Petruski Farm on the east side of Colliers Mill road, a 39-acre site now actively farmed, had a development potential - meaning housing or light industry - of $24,000 per acre, Bartlett said, making its estimated worth nearly $1 million on the open market.
The homestead, like the other three, is near the Fort Dix Reservation and the Freeholders board is looking into matching funds with the military.
Ocean County Planning Board Director David J. McKeon told the board, "We are reaching out to the military to work with us" on putting a buffer between the military installation and surrounding civilian homes and businesses.
Also on the list for purchase is the 22-acre John Perry homestead, currently an active Christmas tree farm near the Plumsted municipal building and public library. The site was rated as worth $774,000 as a potential development, or $35,000 per acre.
The farm's cash crop could change, Bartlett said, meaning the type of things grown, but the use can't change. Perry is a volunteer member of the county Shade Tree Commission.
And Superior Court Judge James D. Clyne's 23-acre horse farm, which abuts the Colliers Mill Wildlife Refuge, was valued at $585,000 or $25,000 per acre.
The county will not have to borrow money to fund these purchases, Bartlett said.
Getting Started On "Rail Trail"
Also on the agenda for Wednesday's meeting is approval to seek bids for the two-mile first phase of the long-debated "Rail Trail" at a cost of $300,000. The biking, hiking, outdoor recreation route would stretch from West Bay Avenue in Barnegat to Water Street in Toms River. Phase One will begin on West Bay and run as far north as Pancoast Road in Waretown.
Construction should be completed in the fall. Before the start of Phase One, the Freeholders plan to ask the state DOT for a grant to carry the project forward.
A presentation at the Freeholders' preboard meeting last Wednesday by Frank S. Scarantino of the county engineering department, described the first phase of the Barnegat to Toms River Rail Trail which will begin construction this summer. The 16-mile stretch will follow the rail bed of the long-defunct Central Railroad of New Jersey Barnegat trunk line.
The trail will be a 10 feet wide stone path strong enough for emergency vehicles. It will be used for recreation only with all but emergency vehicles banned.
Freeholder Deputy Director James F. Lacey said it took a long time to get the 16-mile site out of trusteeship, but he remembers seeing the potential during a memorable fly-over.
"I remember flying over it and thinking it's perfect for almost any recreational pursuit from birding, to picnicking, to cross country skiing," he said.
Bartlett said the trail will have "the same kind of amenities they are used to seeing at our county parks."
Lacey noted the pathway will be strong enough to handle bicycles while being porous enough to allow rains to drain through the surface.
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