Cooper River Park revitalization plan due Wednesday

Camden County officials will present on Wednesday night at a public hearing their $23 million plan to revitalize Cooper River Park.

The five-year plan includes construction of a boardwalk and fishing piers along the riverbanks and improvements to athletic fields, picnic areas, the playground, and the park stadium.

"It's the county's function to improve the quality of life for our residents," Freeholder Jeffery L. Nash said Friday. "There's no better way to do that than enhance our parks."

The public forum will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Camden County Boathouse on North Park Drive.

Freeholders will vote on the project April 19. If the plan passes, construction will likely begin in the fall once the board selects contractors through competitive bidding, Nash said.

A county bond will fund the project, and the county Open Space fund will service that debt.

To diffuse costs, changes to the park will be completed in stages, Nash said.

The first phase of upgrades, which is to cost $5 million, will focus on North Park Drive between Cuthbert Boulevard and the Jack Curtis Stadium.

The plan, designed by Cairone & Kaupp Inc. of Philadelphia, includes landscaping the park entranceway corners to give visitors "a wow factor that they're walking into this beautiful park," Nash said.

Concurrent with the park revitalization is a project aimed at enhancing water quality, stabilizing the riverbanks, and improving the river rowing course.

That $4 million venture is one of eight economic-development projects the Delaware River Port Authority voted to pay for in December, sparking controversy for appropriating toll revenue for nontransportation projects.

"Revenue coming into the DRPA should be used exclusively and only for the core mission of the DRPA, which is to improve the four bridges and the PATCO transit system," said Jack Wagner, Pennsylvania's auditor general and a member of the DRPA committee.

DRPA operates the Ben Franklin, Walt Whitman, Betsy Ross, and Commodore Barry Bridges.

Nash, also vice chairman of DRPA, said improvements to the rowing course would accommodate more prestigious rowing competitions, which he said would spur economic activity.

"Regattas are economic engines," he said. "Every time we have a regatta, it fills every hotel room, every restaurant. They are worth millions to the region."

Edward Maule, 40, and girlfriend Cara Carlson, 34, left work early Friday afternoon to enjoy river vistas and a picnic spread of grapes and aged cheddar at the park.

Maule, of Cherry Hill, said he saw no need for the multimillion-dollar project in strapped economic times.

"It's like saying, 'We can't pay the mortgage, but we're going to put in a nice flowerbed."