By BERNIE WEISENFELD
Courier-Post Staff
MOUNT HOLLY -- The Burlington County Bridge Commission hopes to launch development of a long-envisioned riverfront bird sanctuary this year, officials said at a county freeholder meeting Wednesday.
The planned 250-acre Delaware River shoreline preserve is just south of the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge in Palmyra.
Four years ago, said commission executive director George Nyikita, a county-local collaboration began on the project. "It was Bob's idea (Bob Shinn, former county freeholder-director and current state environmental commissioner), through urging from Joan Quinn, of the Palmyra Historical Society, that this be developed as a wildlife refuge."
Though "struggling at times' with the project, said Nyikita, the commission hopes to start development by year's end. It will pay for engineering and legal preparation for the sanctuary, said Nyikita. Government and private grants will be sought for development, he said. A 30-year management agreement to operate the sanctuary will be proposed to the state Tidelands Resource Council on April 18, said Carol Beske, commission engineering consultant. The state-owned site is bordered by Route 73, the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge, Delaware River and Pennsauken Creek, said Beske. The land is partly occupied by a disposal site for the spoils of river channel dredging.
"This is on the eastern flyway. The number of birds that they have sighted there number about 205," said Beske. "It's just a natural."
The site is already visited informally by bird watchers from New Jersey and neighboring states, she said. It is free to the public.
Beske outlined the walkways that will encircle the site and a visitor center with maps and exhibits about the bridge construction, the dredging and the wildlife.
"I think the project is marvelous," Freeholder-Director Linda Coffey said. "That many birds on one site!"
"Especially in Burlington County, we don't have anything that directly fronts the river as a park for all county residents," said Freeholder Vincent Farias, who mediated an agreement to keep possibly contaminated dredge material from Moorestown's Strawbridge Lake out of the Palmyra site.
"It's a project I think this board will support 1,000 percent."
The freeholders also were briefed by county engineer Joseph Caruso on $15.7 million in planned road and bridge projects in 29 municipalities. The list includes six major road reconstructions, three new traffic signals and 18 road resurfacings. An $11.9 million bond issue to finance most of the work will be introduced at the April 10 freeholder meeting.
