State Hands Environmental Commission $6,500 Grant

Hopatcong's open-space plan is getting a facelift.

The Environmental Commission will use a $6,500 grant from the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions to update the borough's 6-year-old open-space plan, board member Jerry Scanlan said at its Wednesday night meeting at the municipal building.

The Environmental Commission applied for a $7,000 grant months ago, was approved last month and was OK'ed by the mayor and council at its meeting last week.

Scanlan said the update was necessary since, among other things, the town has acquired land since 2004.

He added that the $500 difference between the request and award was negligible, and that the borough's open-space fund would not only match the state's aid, but also make up for the difference.

Scanlan said the open-space plan could use every bit of the $14,000.

"We want to do things that make a difference and not just talk," he said.

Later, Scanlan said the New Jersey Conservation Foundation would plan most of the project, with assistance from a committee Scanlan created of borough officials, including himself, Cliff Lundin, John Young, Mike Francis and others.

"They're going to go over the old plan and decide what's going to be changed into the new plan," Hopatcong Business Administrator Catherine Steinel said. "They need our tax maps, our master plan. They need to see what's changed since the last time we [updated the open-space plan]."

Steinel said the committee and the NJCF would meet at least four times before public hearings in front of the Planning Board.

"We're going over the laundry list of documents in order to get them to proceed with these meetings," Steinel said, adding: "You want to have everybody to have input as to how it impacts their position with the town."

Scanlan hopes the formalities will be finished by January and the open-space plan updated by March or April of 2011.

"I think we've done good stuff," he said of the Environmental Commission. "I do. But I think we've got to take our good stuff and get even better."

Scanlan sees updating the open-space plan as a step in the right direction.