Salisbury Township is applying for a $3.4 million grant toward a $6.8 million project to improve William H. Laubach Memorial Park on the township’s east side.

The Salisbury Township Board of Commissioners voted 4-0, with one commissioner absent at the March 27 township meeting, to approve a resolution to apply for $3,401,723 in grant funding for Laubach Park from the Land and Water Conservation Fund of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

It is estimated the Laubach project will cost $6,803,446, Stan G. Wojciechowski, department head, Municipal Engineering Services, Barry Isett & Associates, Inc, the consulting engineering firm for the township, said to a reporter for The Press after the meeting.

“The project is a 50% match,” Wojciechowski said, explaining township officials are ensuring the funding match will be provided for Laubach.

Before the vote, Wojciechowski told commissioners, officials and residents at the meeting, “We have been reassured funding has been set aside.”

Wojciechowski said Salisbury may have an advantage to be looked upon favorably by the LWCF because the fund provided a grant for improvements to Laubach in 1972.

“If we get all of it [the grant], it will be a miracle. If we get a part of it, it will be great,” board of commissioners President Debra J. Brinton said.

The LWCF was created by Congress in 1964 in “a bipartisan commitment to safeguard natural areas, water resources and our cultural heritage and to provide recreation opportunities across the nation,” according to the U.S. Department of the Interior website.

The Great American Outdoors Act, signed into law in 2020, annually authorizes $900 million in royalties paid by energy companies drilling for oil and gas on the Outer Continental Shelf for permanent funding of the LWCF, according to the fund’s website.

The LWCF “works in partnership with federal, state and local efforts to protect land in our national parks, national wildlife refuges, national forests, national trails and other public lands; to preserve working forests and ranch lands; to support state and local parks and playgrounds; to preserve battlefields and other historic and cultural sites and to provide the tools that communities need to meet their diverse conservation and recreation needs,” the website states.

Salisbury Township adopted the Master Site Development Plan for William H. Laubach Memorial Park and Franko Farm Recreation Area in January 2017.

The township completed stormwater mitigation for the approximate 14.4-acre Laubach Park, which is bounded by Fairview Road to the west, Lehigh Avenue to the North, residences along Brook Avenue to the east and residences and private property to the south.

The deadline for the grant application is April 2. It is expected township officials will notified in 12-15 months if the LWCF grant is approved.

Wojciechowski presented a Laubach Park improvements sketch plan at the Feb. 27 commissioners’ meeting workshop.

The plan includes a new roadway from the parking lot on the southwest side at Fairview, north to Lehigh Avenue. Vehicle parking spots would be along three areas of the roadway.

Other proposed improvements include: a walking path on the park’s perimeter, Laubach Park Pond wooden boardwalk and fishing platform, four pickleball courts, basketball court, soccer-football field, two baseball fields and new restrooms.

Salisbury Township meetings in the municipal building, 2900 S. Pike Ave., include: 7 p.m. April 9, zoning hearing board; 7 p.m. April 10, board of commissioners; 7 p.m. April 16, environmental advisory council; 7 p.m. April 23, planning commission and 7 p.m. April 24, board of commissioners.