Letter to the Editor: NJ DEP Must Fix Sacco & Cabrera’s Misconduct Properly
North Bergen resident Robert Walden sent this Letter to the Editor to Hudson TV concerning the Township of North Bergen's 2001 decision pertaining to the placement of preschool trailers in…
North Bergen resident Robert Walden sent this Letter to the Editor to Hudson TV concerning the Township of North Bergen’s 2001 decision pertaining to the placement of preschool trailers in James J. Braddock Park.
The letter is being sent to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
NJ DEP MUST FIX SACCO & CABRERA’S MISCONDUCT PROPERLY
In 2001 North Bergen officials (including then and current Mayor/Commissioners Nick Sacco and Hugo Cabrera), replaced a NJDEP Green Acres funded ballfield in Braddock Park with North Bergen’s 17-trailer Preschool, in violation of NJ environmental and educational regulations.
Their actions cost North Bergen and Hudson County taxpayers around $5 million dollars to lease trailers which are now likely in a landfill, and many millions more to pay violation fines (in the form of replacement parkland), and for a diversion application which North Bergen withdrew after more than 10 years of pouring money into it for attorneys, architects, appraisers, engineers, consultants, etc.
Official explanations that the trailers couldn’t be placed at the old North Bergen pool site because of contamination are ridiculous. Contamination is almost everywhere in North Bergen and it gets remediated. Officials didn’t even test the Preschool site beforehand but studies conducted since showed contamination close-by.
The trailers were situated in Braddock Park without conducting a traffic study beforehand.
In 2018 a pedestrian’s vehicular death was linked to heavy traffic in the area due to the Preschool.
The State didn’t enforce its many directives (beginning in 2011) to North Bergen to remove the Preschool from the park. And the State allowed the Preschool to utilize trailer classrooms for 24 years despite regulations which don’t permit more than 5 years.
In the 1990s North Bergen began receiving State ECPA funding to establish a preschool by 2001. North Bergen began building an Early Childhood Center for preschoolers and kindergartners; when it was completed there wasn’t room for the preschoolers.
Rather than placing preschool trailers on the nearly 5 acres of land the Board of Education owns on 64th Street or on other viable sites, North Bergen negligently situated them in Braddock Park.
Officials failed to exercise fiduciary irresponsibility and taxpayers are now paying for their poor judgment.
NJDEP needs to settle this asap without trashing environmental regulations, which so far, it hasn’t done…
North Bergen claims it diverted under 1% of the Preschool parking lot (.0471 of .6230 acres).
That’s 3 of the parking lot’s approximately 40 parking spaces. NJDEP possesses abundant documentation that the entire parking lot was illegally diverted. Also problematic is that for the 2nd time North Bergen proposes to provide existing parkland as replacement parkland. NJDEP regulations prohibit this. Commissioner Potosnak – please restore faith in NJDEP.
Sunday, October 4, 2026 · Serving all of Hudson County since March 2011
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