Committee displeased by paving at Holmdel Park County official says work was done to make site wheelchair-accessible BY KAREN E. BOWES Staff Writer KAREN BOWES A new asphalt roadway in Holmdel Park is upsetting to some Holmdel Township Committee members. According to the county, the paving was done to make the park more accessible to those in wheelchairs. HOLMDEL - The county paved Holmdel Park and now it looks like a parking lot. That's how the mayor and Holmdel Township Committee see it. The county, of course, has a different take on it. According to Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Burry, the county's parks and recreation liaison, the resurfacing was done to enable those in wheelchairs access to the trails from the parking lot. The path around the lake was resurfaced along with some dirt paths. The material used is gray or a soft black color and looks similar to a that of a three-quarter concrete mixture. Along with resurfacing the dirt paths, a new asphalt roadway was installed near the lake. This roadway is considerably wider than the old dirt path that runs around the lake. "The reason for it is we had to be ADA compliant," Burry said on Friday, referring to the Americans with Disabilities Act. She added that the county had no choice in the matter. "We had a lawsuit brought against us by a private citizen," Burry said. "Using a wheelchair, it wasn't easily accessible getting from a parking lot to the path, so hence the paving." "We also had an erosion problem there. So it was also to correct that," Burry added. On Monday, Laura Kirkpatrick, public information officer for the county park system, said that the width of the asphalt roadway is a Department of Transportation standard. "It's the same width as Henry Hudson trail," Kirkpatrick said. Kirkpatrick added that the paving was not finished yet. Work needed to be halted due to the weather, she said, and will pick up again in the spring. The wide roadway allows for bicyclists to pass one another, she said. Also, Kirkpatrick said the roadway needed to be wide enough for an emergency vehicle to use. "They prefer to have a hard surface to drive on," she said. Committeeman Rocco Pascucci said he finds the new asphalt "offensive." "I took a ride and I did not like what I saw," Pascucci said at the Jan. 18 committee meeting. "It's offensive. It's changed the state of the park completely." Committeeman Larry Fink agreed. "It was just overkill," Fink said, adding that the new paved roadway near the lake is "at least three times the width of a wheelchair." "It's unfortunate that some of the residents reacted the way they did," Burry said. "It was something we had to do. I did see the photographs that were taken. … It didn't look terribly invasive to me, although sometimes you don't always see the same thing in a photograph [as] what is actually there." Mayor Serena DiMaso was especially annoyed that the committee had to find out about the paving from an article in the Holmdel High School student newspaper. "Had we known about this sooner, we could've acted on it sooner," DiMaso said. "I think we should definitely send a letter to the freeholders." The committee agreed to send a letter, asking that Holmdel be notified of any major changes to the county park in the future. According to Burry, this measure is already in place. "Usually, if it's a major project, its announced at a freeholders meeting," Burry said. For general maintenance matters, she said the county doesn't generally feel the need to inform the town. "I know there was a question of, did we get DEP [state Department of Environmental Protection] approval?" Burry said. "If you know anything about our parks system, everything is done with the highest of standards." They "cross every t and dot every i," she said. As for lawsuits, Burry believes it's par for the course. "We're a very large target," Burry said of the county. "For one reason or another, we always seem to get it."