Feds award Paterson $4.9M for rehabilitation of park
PATERSON – The massive $15 million rehabilitation of Paterson’s long-neglected Westside Park has secured its final piece of funding: a $4.9 million grant from the National Park Service.
Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. on Wednesday announced the grant award from a federal program designed to boost park projects in poor communities with insufficient outdoor recreation opportunities.
The work would include improvements to the existing recreation facilities, including the tennis courts, baseball field and Totowa Oval complex, used for football and baseball, as well as the creation of a new cricket field, officials said.
There also would be new pathways, including the extension of a riverwalk, and some roads inside the park will be converted to walking paths.
“Safe, clean spaces are the foundation of any society,” Pascrell said in announcing the funding. “Government works best when it uses resources to make daily lives better. Here it is happening for our great city.”
City officials and various nonprofit groups have been working on the Westside Park plan for more than seven years. Last fall, the project was about $5 million short of the funding it needed, and Mayor Andre Sayegh’s administration said the opportunity to complete the full $15 million plan hinged on the city’s getting the federal grant.
“This is enormously important,” said Bob Guarasci, executive director of the New Jersey Community Development Corporation, the nonprofit organization that started the planning for the park in 2016. “This closes the loop on the finances for this massive rehabilitation that will return the park to its former grandeur.”
It remains unclear when construction will start. The city Planning Board last September voted in favor of the park design. But the Paterson Historic Preservation Commission still must give its final approval before any work can begin, officials said.
The preservation commission has expressed concerns that the park design does not adequately address historical aspects of Westside. In particular, the commission wants the work to include the rehabilitation of the park’s Colt Mansion entrance pillars and walls, the World War I bronze statue “Liberty” by Gaetano Federici, the concrete boat launches, and the concrete base of the bandstand.
Sayegh last November sent the commission a letter expressing his commitment to addressing the historic features of the park. But the preservation organization said in its conditional approval in December that it will withdraw its support if the historical features are not included.
Kenneth Simpson, a member of the commission, welcomed the new funding for the park, saying the project is tremendously important.
“But we also need to be mindful of the historic elements of the park,” Simpson said. “They need to be addressed as well.”
The park was built in 1889 and runs along the north bank of the Passaic River in the western part of Paterson. Flooding is one of the problems that have exacerbated the poor condition of the park, city officials said.
The Sayegh administration has applied for a state grant to build a flood wall on the southern bank of the river across from Westside, along Pennington Park. But the proposed wall would not protect the new $15 million investment proposed for Westside, officials said.
Joe Malinconico is editor of Paterson Press. Email: editor@patersonpress.com