Letter To The Editor: North Bergen’s Misconduct

NJ DEP has waited 15 years for North Bergen to complete a Braddock Park diversion application which if approved, would legalize (after-the-fact) the presence of the North Bergen Preschool in Hudson County’s Braddock Park, a park that is supposed to be used for recreational purposes only.

In February, 2023, NJ DEP asked North Bergen to provide plans for the preschool North Bergen intends to build in Braddock Park to replace its 24 year-old trailer classrooms, as well as provide assurances that North Bergen’s planned preschool will meet State educational safety regulations.

Now eight months later (2 months past DEP’s deadline), North Bergen hasn’t provided NJ DEP with any of the requested preschool information and North Bergen doesn’t intend to.A few days ago, two North Bergen commissioners stated on camera that the Township doesn’t have a preschool plan.  The plan North Bergen previously submitted to NJ DEP likely did not meet State educational regulations and instead of submitting a new plan, one of the commissioners stated that NJ DEP should approve the diversion and then let the Township do as it sees fit for the good of North Bergen’s children.
https://hudsontv.com/future-of-nbboe-pre-school-braddock-park-trailers/

The continued use of decrepit 24 year-old trailers in a location that does not meet State guidelines for roadways and sidewalks, which lacks proper traffic control, etc. is certainly not in the best interests of North Bergen children.

A pedestrian in a crosswalk walking toward a parking lot the preschool uses was  run-over and killed and the police accident report noted the high amount of pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area due to the preschool – the preschool that shouldn’t be there.
North Bergen officials don’t give a damn about State guidelines, regulations and directives and they treat the public callously and with disregard.

If what has gone on here is not official misconduct, what is?

How dare commissioners call 24 year-old trailers “beautiful facilities” and claim that after a decade of declining school enrollments and the expenditure of $65 million to build a new junior high school, the schools are overcrowded?

There will be more-than-enough room in the elementary schools for all the preschoolers (about 250 in 2023-2024), once the approximately 1,103 7th and 8th graders are moved out of the elementary schools and into the new junior high.

No one denies the park is a beautiful location for a school, but the North Bergen school doesn’t belong in Hudson County’s Braddock Park anymore than a Jersey City school belongs in Lincoln Park.  Hudson County’s two great parks, Lincoln and Braddock Park should remain intact and not diverted.

NJ DEP should reject North Bergen’s intentionally incomplete diversion application now.

Robert Walden

North Bergen, NJ