January 21, 2005
Four years after grant, KJ park still just plan
By Chris McKenna
Times Herald-Record
[email protected]
Kiryas Joel – Officials say they must clear one last hurdle before they spend a $195,000 grant they got almost four years ago to build their booming community its first playground.
The state awarded the grant in March 2001, but the project met its first delay when Kiryas Joel officials said they would scale down their plans and choose a new site for a children's park because they got less money than requested.
The project was shifted outside the densely populated confines of Kiryas Joel to a wooded area in the Town of Monroe, near the intersection of Seven Springs Road and Seven Springs Mountain Road.
One year ago, village officials said the project had been delayed by an environmental review but might be done by the end of the summer.
Still no park.
This week, Kiryas Joel Administrator Gedalye Szegedin said one obstacle remained: a mortgage on the parkland the village plans to buy.
THE PARK WOULD take up 2 to 3 acres of a 30-acre parcel owned by Vaad Hakiryah, the real estate arm of Kiryas Joel's main religious congregation. Vaad Hakiryah has agreed to sell the sliver of land to the village for about $65,000, Szegedin said.
But the organization borrowed $1 million when it bought the parcel for $1.5 million in 2000. And the portion being sold to the village must be extricated from that mortgage before the sale can take place, Szegedin said.
He now expects construction to begin in the spring and last a couple of months. He estimates the project, including the land deal, will cost $400,000.
A spokeswoman for the department that awarded the grant voiced no objections Tuesday to the length of time the project has taken.
"As long as the project is moving forward, then there shouldn't be a problem," said Kathy Jimenez of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.
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