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Rogers and Gunther Property Acquisitions

Two important properties have recently been acquired by West Windsor Township to be preserved as open space. These include the 13-acre Rogers property in Grovers Mill and the 8-acre Gunther property bordering the Millstone River. FOWWOS was instrumental in both acquisitions.

Rogers Property

The Rogers property is located on Big Bear Brook across Clarksville Road from Grovers Mill Pond. It not only is an important piece from an ecological point of view, but also has historical significance, having been visited by Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Grover Cleveland.

The township acquired ownership of the property in June at a cost of $1.1 million, with FOWWOS and Mercer County sharing in the cost and the Delaware & Raritan Greenway providing technical assistance and helping FOWWOS raise funds. The County contributed $500,000 and FOWWOS covered the remaining $600,000 through grants and more than $110,000 in contributions from 22 families in the neighborhood.

"It's important, especially in a town like West Windsor that has been subject to so much development of late, that we preserve as much green space as possible," Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes said.

Longtime resident Ronald Rogers, whose family sold the property, was a co-founder and trustee of FOWWOS before he died in 1999. The Rogers family turned down offers for more than twice as much from developers to ensure that the property would remain as open space as Mr. Rogers would have wanted. The land will be used for passive recreation and FOWWOS eventually will construct low-impact trails to connect the property to other preserved open spaces in the Township.

Gunther Property

The 8-acre Gunther property is on Joanne Street, off Millstone Road near the Millstone River. To purchase the property in February, FOWWOS applied for and received a $180,000 Green Acres grant, and The Mercer County Open Space Committee also provided $180,000 in funding. The township covered the remainder of the $632,000 purchase cost with a bond issue.

Acquiring the Gunther property is important to the township's plan to preserve land along the Millstone River. By acquiring land and gaining access to easements along the river, the township hopes eventually to create a trail that will stretch along the Millstone River from the Princeton border to the East Windsor border. "The reason this is important — this is going to be a piece of property that will continue what we wanted to do to preserve the riverbank of the Millstone River," said Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh.

Last October FOWWOS received a $25,000 federal Recreational Trails Program Grant administered through the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and a $5,000 Corporate Responsibility Program Grant from GE Healthcare of West Windsor to fund the development of a trail on the property and others along the Millstone River. FOWWOS and West Windsor Township have worked closely with members of the Mayor’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force in the design and implementation of these trail improvements.

FOWWOS held a public review of plans for improvements to the area, and work began in April on a half-mile portion of the Millstone River Preserve Trail near Millstone Road. Those improvements will provide for access to and travel on the Millstone River with the addition of a canoe/kayak launch located near the Millstone Road bridge, connection of the existing trail to a future small gravel parking lot at the trailhead on Millstone Road, and addition of a macadam path along Millstone Road from the parking lot to the canoe/kayak launch area. “It’s another great example of private/public partnership between Friends of West Windsor Open Space and the township to preserve the roots of West Windsor for future generations," said FOWWOS trustee and co-founder Dick Snedeker.
 

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Friends of West Windsor Open Space
P.O. Box 73, West Windsor, New Jersey 08550      (609) 799-8372
 e-mail:
president@fowwos.org  or webmaster@fowwos.org

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