Park Commission Hosts Special Olympics Cycling

The Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the Somerset County Park Commission are hosting the 2014 Special Olympics Cycling Competition at Skillman Park in the Skillman Section of Montgomery Township. The competition is part of the 2014 USA Games that has attracted athletes from across the country to compete in 16 sports at locations throughout Somerset and Mercer Counties.

Beginning Monday, June 16, 2014 and concluding on Thursday, June 19, 2014,  eight events will be contested on the roads of Skillman Park. Special athletes will compete for medals in the 10K Road Race;  10K Time Trial; 15K Road Race; 1K Time Trial;  2K Time Trial; 500 M Time Trial;  5K Road Race; and  5K Time Trial.

Freeholder Deputy Director Mark Caliguire was on hand to take in the Monday competition and participate in the award ceremony for the day’s events.

Skillman Park is owned by Somerset County and maintained by the Somerset County Park Commission. The 256-acre parcel originally consisted of three large farms. The lands were purchased by the State of New Jersey for the establishment in 1898 of the “New Jersey State Village for Epileptics” In the mid-twentieth century, the facility became the New Jersey Neuropsychiatric Institute, later known as “North Princeton Developmental Center” or NPDC, a New Jersey Department of Human Services’ residential psychiatric care facility until 1998.

Information on Somerset County Park Commission programs and activities may be found at www.somersetcounty parks.org or by calling 908-722-1200.