The following letter to the editor was received by Hudson TV from North Bergen resident Robert Walden:
The North Bergen Preschool consists of 17 “temporary” and decrepit trailers (“TCUs”) which have remained in Hudson County’s Braddock Park, in violation of environmental and educational regulations since 2001. North Bergen is applying to NJ DEP to legalize, after-the-fact, North Bergen’s illegal diversion of Braddock Park.
DEP asked North Bergen for a description of the preschool it intends to build in Braddock Park and for confirmation that it will meet NJ DOE regulations and without receiving a response from North Bergen, DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis, stating that DEP concurs with North Bergen that there haven’t been any viable preschool alternative sites since 2001.2- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though North Bergen sabotaged several plans to use North Bergen BOE owned land on 64th Street/Meadowview Avenue for its preschool. North Bergen claimed it couldn’t build on this land because it was protected park land (on the ROSI list), even though a few years later North Bergen claimed it made a mistake, it wasn’t park land and then North Bergen claimed it couldn’t build there because it sold some of the land. Meanwhile, .57 acre adjacent to the BOE land has been for sale for years, but North Bergen refuses to buy it; there is at least 5 acres of land available at 64th Street.
3- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though North Bergen did not investigate properties smaller than 1.47 acres, which is the area North Bergen (falsely) claims that the North Bergen Preschool currently diverts. The preschool diverts more than 1.47 acre because North Bergen failed to claim that it diverts virtually the entire parking lot adjacent to the preschool and because North Bergen also diverts, but didn’t report its diversion of the soccer field parking lot.
4- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though North Bergen did not explain why there will not be enough room in the elementary schools for all the North Bergen preschoolers (as North Bergen’s 2018 NJ DOE approved Long Range Facilities Plan demonstrated there would be), after the High Tech JHS is renovated and opened and 7th and 8th graders are moved out of elementary schools and into the new junior high school. Enrollment numbers provided by North Bergen for 2023-2024 show there were 205 preschoolers and 1103 7th and 8th graders. North Bergen has not explained why 1103 vacated elementary school seats isn’t enough room for 205 preschoolers. Nor has North Bergen explained why the Robert Fulton Elementary School cannot be used for preschoolers as North Bergen’s LRFP stated it would be.
5- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though North Bergen did not analyze for preschool use the many acres of North Bergen properties that the Township has been developing and plans on redeveloping in the future.
6- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though North Bergen claimed the Hudson News properties wasn’t flat enough for preschool purposes even though a huge multi-building residential apartment building campus (Hudson Mews) was built on this site.
7- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though North Bergen/Hudson County officials had ties to officials who developed the Hudson News and other viable properties such as the Manhattan Mobile Home Park.
8- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though North Bergen has not actively searched for possible alternative preschool locations since around 2012.
9- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though North Bergen did not provide cost analyses for rejected alternative locations, as directed by NJ DEP.
10- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though North Bergen did not issue a RFP/RFQ for a standalone preschool as directed by NJ DEP.
11- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though North Bergen rejected sites (such as Hudson News properties), because they had soil contamination even though the Braddock Park site also has soil contamination.
12- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though North Bergen claimed it couldn’t afford a preschool in the community at the same time that North Bergen had its largest budget surpluses in history.
13- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though the current preschool location does not meet State guidelines for traffic and pedestrian safety and even though a pedestrian in a crosswalk was run over and killed just a few feet from the soccer field parking lot that the preschool utilizes. The Hudson County Sheriff’s accident report notes the high volume of vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the area due to the preschool.
14- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though environmental regulations state that diversions are supposed to be a last resort and that proposed replacement land (on 64th Street) should be used to prevent, not to enable diversions.
15- DEP approved North Bergen’s alternatives analysis even though in 2016 DEP officials who were in charge of North Bergen’s diversion pre-application suggested hiring an expert consultant, one familiar with DOE regulations, to evaluate North Bergen’s alternatives analysis.
16- NJ DEP and DOE have allowed North Bergen to continue to operate, for nearly 24 years, a preschool which violated and continues to violate important educational and environmental regulations.
17-In response to OPRA requests, neither North Bergen nor the State have been able to provide documents which demonstrate that the State gave North Bergen authorization to locate its preschool in Braddock Park.
18- Hudson County residents have been denied the use of what was formerly a Braddock Park ball-field for nearly 24 years, even though North Bergen is designated as an environmental “Overburdened Community” (OBC).
NJ DEP and NJ DOE have not heeded, nor enforced directives and State regulations.
Officials are indirectly responsible for the death of at least one person – this death might have been avoidable had officials done their jobs.
Robert Walden
North Bergen, NJ