The mayor and council and the board of education are working together to expand park and playing space by developing two sites near Faust Intermediate School. Two borough-owned properties on Grove Street across from Faust are being developed into a passive park for the students to use. The former site of the Franklin School at the corner of Humboldt and Main streets is going to be made into a public park with bocce courts and a horseshoe pit.
The town purchased two residential properties on Grove Street several years ago and the Department of Public Works (DPW) is currently in the process of dismantling and recycling the houses to make way for an expanded playground and passive park.
Councilman Joel Brizzi hopes to expand the play area for students at the Faust School. Students currently play at the annex across the street on the corner and at the closed off section of Grove Street in between Everett Place and Uhland Street. The two new properties are contiguous to the current annex.
Brizzi said the properties could eventually be used to make a volleyball court and a passive park with benches. He expects, however, at least a grassy playing area will be ready by the beginning of the next school year in September.
"It’s always easier to expand than it is to build [something new]," said Brizzi about the plans.
The two properties are adjacent 50 by 100 foot lots on the south side of Grove Street bordering the annex. The two lots cost $375,000 each. So far one house has been fully demolished and the DPW is still working on the other.
About 80 percent of one house was recycled according to Alan DeRosa, the DPW superintendent. The DPW is currently removing wood, wiring, concrete, bricks, shingles and any other recyclable material from the second house. DeRosa said he originally considered getting private contractors to demolish the two houses but the cost was going to run somewhere between $15,000 and $18,000 according to estimates. Instead he decided to have the DPW do it itself and the project so far has only cost $4,000 before factoring in the money earned by recycling the materials.
DeRosa said the DPW has already used some of the larger wood planks removed from the first house in other town projects.
Dennis Monks, a member of the board of education, noted he was struck by how extensive the DPW’s efforts have been to recycle every available piece of material.
The borough allowed representatives from Habitat for Humanity to go through the house and take any items they thought could be utilized before the DPW began recycling the buildings, according to Ed Ravettine.
"The bulk of the cost will be a three-foot-tall retaining wall along one of the properties," said Brizzi. DeRosa confirmed a retaining wall may be necessary for the two properties. Brizzi said he doesn’t yet have an estimated cost for renovating the Franklin School property. However, DeRosa said he expects the DPW will begin working on the site by the end of July.
