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Posts

Ron Leir

Upgrades to Jersey City Parks to Begin This Spring

January 16, 2020/in header, Latest News, Neighborhoods, News /by Ron Leir

The Jersey City Municipal Open Space, Recreation, and Historic Property Preservation Fund will disburse $3 million to 15 projects throughout Jersey City, the first such allocation since the city’s voters authorized setting up the fund in a 2016 referendum. Work is expected to start in spring 2020.

The city provided a list of the projects by ward: 

  • Greenville: Ferris Triangle ($500,000) for a new play structure, splash pad, fitness loop, electricity, and water; Martyniak-Enright Park, $200,000 for landscaping, benches, and other passive upgrades; Audubon Park, $100,000 for improved lighting.
  • West Side: LaPointe Park (no amount listed) for an updated splash pad, monument repair, and solar-powered park benches to provide free Wi-Fi and charging stations; Boyd McGuiness Park (no amount listed) for sunshade, bulletin board, and solar-powered park benches.
  • Journal Square/The Heights: Pavonia-Marion Park ($500,000) to build fencing for easier access, expand the playground, repave the basketball courts, replace the bleachers, fix the cement pavement elevation, and add landscaping, trees, benches, picnic tables, chess tables, a water fountain, and a dog park; Canco Park ($100,000) to install benches, a charging station, fencing, a water fountain, and soft playscape modules for toddlers; Reservoir 3 ($400,000) for general renovations; and Pershing Field ($50,000) to restore the historic Bell flagpole.
  • Downtown: Hamilton Park ($300,000) for benches, picnic tables, and an overhaul of the dog parks; Van Vorst Park ($200,000) to improve the playground equipment and surface, provide shade for the sandbox, and install a synthetic lawn; Mary Benson Park ($200,000) to clean and repaint the memorial, refurbish the original water fountain, and plant trees and painting the grounds surrounding both monuments; Brunswick Community Garden ($3,000) to prune an unhealthy mulberry tree to meet safety standards.
  • Bergen-Lafayette: Bergen Hill Park ($200,000) to install fencing where none exists, restore a stone wall, install night lighting and security cameras, and create walking paths; Arlington Park ($100,000) for landscaping improvements, fencing, murals, and cosmetic work on the gazebo.
Ron Leir

Take a Walk on the Wild Side: Reservoir Park Upgrade Coming

January 8, 2020/in header, Heights, News /by Ron Leir

Jersey City Reservoir No. 3, as the onetime water reserve in the Heights is known, is due for a lot of sprucing up thanks to the recently announced award of more than $2.5 million in city, county, and state grants for improvements.

“We’re ready to move forward with plans to make the area more secure for everyone to enjoy, while also preserving the historical aspects that have great significance to the city,” said Mayor Steve Fulop. “With this funding now in place, we’ll soon have complete access to encourage even more use of the historic landmark.”

Built in the late nineteenth century, the once-active reservoir was decommissioned in the 1980s, when it was replaced with a larger facility in Boonton, New Jersey. Ironically, its evolution into an “urban wildlife preserve” (if Wikipedia be believed) could not have taken place without the site’s very demise. With more and more open space in Jersey City disappearing as the result of development, and in a nod to the work of local preservationists, elected officials now see the value in keeping at least this one parcel of nature pristine.

Photo courtesy City of Jersey City

From the beginning, Reservoir 3 had good bones (if an unpoetic name). It’s enclosed by 20-foot-tall Egyptian Revival stone walls and features Romanesque Revival style pump stations. The historic setting has attracted birds ranging from swans to great blue herons to peregrine falcons who now call the six-acre manmade lake inside the property home. It was the space’s very beauty and potential that, in 2005, led a group of local residents to form the Jersey City Reservoir Preservation Alliance to protect it.

The mission of the Alliance is to “preserve the historic structures and natural resources of Jersey City Reservoir 3, establish the site as a public park and wildlife sanctuary, and promote educational and recreational opportunities at the Reservoir” (according to its website). The group maintains the site as a public park on Saturdays during the summer and fall seasons, hosting a variety of arts and play activities. They also conduct tours, run school programs, hold boating and nature events, take care of the park’s wildlife, and clean the site as needed.

The reservoir is listed on state and federal registers of historic places. For their work preserving the property, the Alliance was recognized with the Ted Conrad Preservationist of the Year Award in 2005.

Plans to further improve Reservoir 3 include building perimeter fencing (with a $500,000 contribution from the Hudson County Open Space, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, Trust); restoring the crumbling screen house, known as the sluice tower (courtesy of a $750,000 gift from the NJ Historic Trust); installing lighting and developing walking trails (with over $884,000 in funding from the state’s Green Acres Program and making $400,000 in general upgrades with a donation by the Jersey City Open Space Advisory Trust.

All this comes as welcome news to Alliance president Cynthia Hadjiyannis.

“We’ve been extremely fortunate-this past year the Reservoir received three separate grants and funds were allocated from the City’s Open Space Trust for historic preservation and site improvement projects. It’s such a unique place that these projects will present unique architectural and engineering challenges. Now that we have money, the Reservoir Alliance will want to make sure the City has a great team working on this in a focused way. I’d personally like to see the City hire an outside historic preservation professional and landscape architect to get the most sensitive, creative design and highest quality workmanship ” she said.

Work will start once the state Historic Preservation Office has signed off on all details and all approvals are in place, projected to be by Spring 2020, according to Jersey City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione. No estimate was given for how long the job would take to complete.

News Briefs

Former Jersey City Police Chief Michael Kelly, who retired effective as of February 1st, earned a $282,779.58 payout for unused time, according to public records. Go here for story.

According to a report in the Jersey Journal, a  Jersey City police and fire dispatcher died on Wednesday after being admitted to the hospital with Covid-19. His death, apparently, follows a Covid-19 outbreak at the Jersey City Public Safety Communications Center. A city spokeswoman has confirmed the death but said that it “hasn’t been determined” that it was coronavirus-related.

 

The 2021 tree planting applications are available. Fill out the form and our city arborists will handle it. Apply early! bit.ly/adoptatreespri… @innovatejc @JCmakeitgreen

Mayor Steven Fulop and the Jersey City Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the opening of the City’s sixth vaccination site located near the Marin Boulevard Light Rail Station to vaccinate frontline workers, including all food and restaurant workers, grocery store workers, porters, hospitality workers, warehouse workers, those in the medical supply chain, and more.

Two of the City-run vaccination sites will dedicate 1,000 J&J vaccines for those interested, prioritizing workers who have limited time off: 100 Marin Boulevard and 28 Paterson Street (Connors Center).   Those interested should call (201) 373-2316.

Vaccine-eligible individuals can make an appointment online by visiting hudsoncovidvax.org.

Keep abreast of Jersey City Covid-19 statistics here.

Governor Murphy has launched a “Covid Transparency Website” where New Jerseyans can track state expenditures related to Covid.  Go here.

For info on vaccinations, call Vaccination Call Center. Operators will assist you with scheduling one: 855-568-0545

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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