Local Group to Seek Grant For Landscape Plan at Historic New Bridge Landing

The Englewood Garden Club is planning to seek up to a possible $25,000 in grant funding through the Garden Club of America, money that would fund a landscaping plan for the Historic New Bridge Landing Park.

Representatives of the group informed members of the Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commission of their plans at the May 5 meeting of the Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commission.

“The Englewood Garden Club have identified New Bridge Landing and are working on a grant to provide an overall landscaping plan for the site,” said Jane Majbeski, president of the Englewood Garden Club.

Majbeski said the Garden Club of America have a “Founder’s Fund” and each year provide three grants, two for $7,500 and one larger grant of $25,000 for projects which are selected by the votes of over 200 clubs around the country.

“They want to see projects that will impact the community,” Majbeski told the commission. “What we love about this project is the history."

Majbeski expressed hope that the club would be able to win the $25,000 grant.

To that end Kevin Wright, secretary of the commission said that he would work with the garden club to come up with a specific project that would then be submitted via an initial 500 word proposal.

Majbeski said this was the first step towards winning the funding. The proposal has a due date of June 1.

The next step is in the process is to complete a more detailed proposal and have that submitted by October 1.

Majbeski said the voting will then happen next March and the funds will be allocated to the three winners in June 2012.

Wright said the plan that he and the club will work on will seek to “restore a cultural landscape and recreate a fragment of the Jersey Dutch countryside.”

Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commissioner Michael Trepicchio said the commission would enthusiastically support the club in its endeavors.

“We have a clean slate here… a lot of great things can happen,” he said.

Trepicchio said that it was important to have a “long range plan” concerning the grounds of the historical park.

“But we need to do this right,” he said.

Pointing to some previous good luck in terms of securing Founder’s Fund money, Majbeski said the Englewood Garden Club won a grant 20 years ago for the Flat Rock Brook Nature Center.

“(With that funding) we restored the quarry area with a backyard habitat and boardwalk,” she said.