The Strawbridge Lake Beautification Committee (SLBC) has partnered with the township to provide two Rent.Fun self-service kayak units at Strawbridge Lake.
Residents will soon be able to rent a kayak at two different locations – one at the east end and one at the west end of the lake. A total of eight kayaks will be available to rent.
“If you ever kayak, a big issue is getting it there (to the lake),” explained George Gravenstine, founding board member of the SLBC. “You’ve got to put it on the top of your car, you’ve got to drag it to the water and there’s a lot of things like that. Particularly if you want to take a young child with you and go try it, it’s even more of an effort. Now, you can just go do that.
“You can walk right up, and you can be on the water in seconds.”
The kayak vendor rental installations will be totally solar powered. A local mechanic will be hired to keep them humming and a promotional video will be available online to learn about using the rental stations.
The Rent.Fun mobile app lets community members unlock and rent equipment with the touch of a button. From kayaks to boogie boards, Rent.Fun rental stations store and secure all recreational equipment when not in use. When Moorestown’s rental stations are ready for use, people can download the app and choose the bin they want; each of them will contain a kayak, a paddle and a vest.
“There’s going to be a charge for an hour,” Gravenstine said. “The bin opens up, you take your stuff, you go use it and bring it back, and if you go beyond an hour, it’s going to charge you more. It tells you all of that. The app is telling you this as it’s happening.
“It’s an amazing thing.”
The concrete pads for the rental stations were put in last month and there’s a lot of excitement about it. Strawbridge Lake will be the first place in Burlington County to have the rental stations, according to Gravenstine.
“It’s an incredible thing and I’m so glad that the township went for it,” he enthused. “We think that it will give people a different perspective of the lake. When you’re out there, it’s a lot prettier than from the shoreline.”
The rental stations could be in as early as November, but check the SLBC website and Facebook page for additional updates.
