Passaic's Dundee Island Park makeover moves forward with $9.2M bid
PASSAIC — Long awaited and much needed, Dundee Island Park's makeover moves forward with a $9.2 million work bid awarded to Flanagan Contracting Group of Hillsborough on Tuesday.
Work is expected to begin Sept. 1.
Once completed, the area will be a showpiece for the county and the city, said Freeholder Director John Bartlett.
“Dundee Island Park is going to be state of the art – with a new river walk, amphitheater, athletic field, and field house," Bartlett said.
The project is being funded by a $5 million grant from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection Office of Natural Resource Restoration and matching money from the county's Open Space funds and county's 2019 capital budget.
"We are delivering a world-class recreation area for residents in the City of Passaic and Passaic County," Bartlett said.
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The park is located between Wall and Monroe streets and is bordered on the east side by the Passaic River. On its western border, there's an existing rail right of way, part of which separates Dundee Island from the city's Pulaski Park.
Once home to army barracks, the site is now covered by a grass soccer field and temporary structures used by homeless individuals.
Close to where the New York and Greenwood Lake railroad bridge crosses over the Passaic River and into Garfield, a number of lean-tos and other temporary structures have been erected along the river bank.
City officials said the creation of a new park means the homeless shanty town will have to be removed.
“These park improvements are just the beginning of our efforts to upgrade recreational space for all our residents and families," Mayor Hector Lora said.
Some of the other efforts include trying to negotiate a land swap with local developer Fadi Samaan, for a roughly half-mile of train track. This would allow the city to remove the track that bisects the area and join the two parks.
Passaic City Council President Gary Schaer has said that elimination of the train tracks will transform the east side of the city. The area has long been a haven for crime.
Lora said it has been his goal to see the train tracks, which are inactive and rife with drug users, removed since he became mayor two years ago.
"I believe in this project" Lora said "I have fought from the beginning to see this day and will continue to push to see its completion to its full potential."
After extensive public outreach and collaboration, the new park is going to include the following: field house with a concession and restroom facilities, new soccer field, amphitheater, playground and spray park, exercise equipment, a community garden, boat launch, river walk and ornamental security lighting throughout the entire park.
Once completed, Dundee Island Park will be incorporated into and maintained by the county's park system.
Residents of Vreeland Village, which abuts the railroad tracks at Sixth Street, welcome any improvements to their neighborhood. They, too, would like the see the railroad tracks go.
Evelyn Robinson, president of the Vreeland Village tenants association, said she looks out her bedroom window and routinely sees drug abuse and prostitution occur on the other side of the iron rung fence that separates the rail line from Vreeland Village.
Removing the tracks, Lora said, will bring "a once in a lifetime opportunity" to transform this area.
"It is the kind of project that we all can point to and say 'this is why we got into politics'," he said.
Four things you didn't know about Dundee Island
- What is now Dundee Island was the first property purchased by the area now called Passaic, circa 1640.
- Then known as Hartman's Island, a trading post was established on the island and was Passaic's first building.
- A popular picnic site, it was once known as First Ward Park
- Around 1895, Dundee ceased being an island when a causeway of garbage, shut off the northern most part of the western branch of the Passaic River.
Source: A History of Passaic and Its Environs by William Winfield Scott
email: fagan@northjersey.com