Action Center
Tuesday July 8, 2008
West Paterson Canal Path Project Rolls Forward
West Paterson receives $147,000 grant
WEST PATERSON—Enhancing the 3,300-foot towpath along the Morris Canal through a $147,000 Department of Housing and Urban Development grant will help preserve the historic 19th-century trail, borough officials say.
The HUD grant helped kick off the first phase in the mile-long bike path that stretches from Thomas May Park to Borough Hall, which is part of an overall municipal open space initiative, officials said Monday.
“This is the beginning, and the beginning is a wonderful thing to be at,” said Ella Filippone, executive director of the Passaic River Coalition.
Once complete, the proposed bike path will be 8 feet wide and made of a crushed blue aggregate. Native vegetation will be planted along the canal banks, which will stabilize the water flow. Access points will be created, and there will be period-style wooden benches. Work on the bike path is expected to begin in the next three to four months, borough officials said.
Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, presented Mayor Pat Lepore and Borough Council members with a check during a news conference on Mount Pleasant Avenue. The HUD grant was not only for creating the bike path, but also for preserving the history of the canal, said Pascrell, who serves on the Congressional Bike Caucus.
The project makes the borough the first Passaic County municipality to redevelop part of the Morris Canal, according to the Passaic River Coalition.
“I’m proud of this project,” Pascrell said Monday. “It isn’t just about a park or a bike trail, it’s about enhancing the history of the canal.”
Members of the Passaic River Coalition of Warren, an environmental group that assisted the borough in filing for the grants, also were present. Between the HUD grant, $200,000 in funding received last year from Passaic County and $189,000 requested in May from the New Jersey Historic Commission, the organization is well on its way to the $1 million needed to complete development of the bike path, Filippone said.
The Morris Canal project will have up to five phases and is expected to be completed in the next three to five years.
When last used 100 years ago, the Morris Canal stretched 102 miles, from Phillipsburg on the Delaware River at its western end to the Hudson River at Jersey City, and it was used for transporting coal.
Industry stopped using the canal in the early 1900s, when trains became the preferred way to transport goods. Since then, Filippone said, most of the canal has been developed for housing and roads, with only about half still left undeveloped.
Expanding and redeveloping green space is important to the borough, Lepore said. Since 2003, Councilman Keith Kazmark said, the borough has been allotted more than $3 million in grants from various state and federal agencies for that purpose.
As a result, new playground equipment has been placed in most of the borough’s parks. Lepore said the borough’s track record of using federal and state grants will keep it in line to continue receiving money.
“This shows that West Paterson not only says they’ll do things,” Lepore said, “but they get things done.”
Reach Virgil Dickson at 973-569-7172 or dickson@northjersey.com.
Reprinted with permission. (c)2008 Herald News (Passaic Co., NJ) Virgil Dickson
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