The Friends of Colonial Lake Park is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Colonial Lake with a picnic for the public on Sept. 21 at the park.
The picnic will be held from noon to 4 p.m. The rain date is Sept. 22.
There will be free ice cream, but picnickers must provide their own food. Grilling is not allowed.
“We thought the picnic would be a nice capstone, celebrating as a whole community the centennial of the lake,” said Tom Ritter, president of the nonprofit Friends of Colonial Lake Park.
Colonial Lake has been – and remains – an invaluable asset to the township and area residents by serving as an oasis for both people and wildlife, Ritter said.
Mayor Patricia Hendricks Farmer agreed.
“Colonial Lake Park is a great resource for residents to commune with nature and each other in a beautiful environment,” Farmer said.
Colonial Lake was created by damming the Shabakunk Creek. It was created as the centerpiece of the Colonial Lakelands single-family-home development in Lawrence Township, off Brunswick Pike.
The 25-acre Colonial Lake is also the centerpiece of Colonial Lake Park, which is a public park maintained by the Lawrence Township Department of Public Works.
The lake is stocked with trout each spring by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Visitors to the public park can enjoy fishing, bird-watching, photography and walking on the trail that circles the lake.
However, Colonial Lake Park was threatened several years ago by the proposed development of an extended-stay hotel next to the Colonial Lanes Bowling and Entertainment Center on Brunswick Pike.
Lawrence Township officials stepped in and purchased the land that was planned for the proposed hotel, using a combination of open space funds from Lawrence Township, Mercer County and the State of New Jersey.
