The following letter to the editor was received by Hudson TV from North Bergen resident Robert Walden:
VIOLATIONS and LIES
Nicholas Sacco was simultaneously NJ State Senator, North Bergen Mayor and Assistant Superintendent of Schools in 1999 when North Bergen (“NB”) illegally diverted its 43rd Street park with a fire station/EMS building and in 2001 when NB illegally diverted Hudson County’s (“HC”) Braddock Park with NB’s Preschool and NB’s Parking Authority vehicles.
Both are supposed to be NJDEP protected parklands, limited to recreational use.
The State failed to conduct proper inspections and enforce regulations…
NJDEP is required to inspect encumbered parklands every 3 years and NJDOE is supposed to inspect “temporary” classrooms (“TCUs”) every year for compliance.
NJDEP didn’t issue diversion violations until ten years after-the-fact.
NJDOE failed to issue NB a violation for the lack of emergency exits in its preschool TCUs , even after a fire destroyed two of them.
NJDOE failed to enforce N.J.A.C. 6A:26-3.13(g), which does not permit TCUs to be used for 24 years, as is the case here.
Since 2001 Mayor Sacco (who is still mayor) and NB have repeatedly stated that the preschool would be removed from Braddock Park. NB sabotaged every plan it made to do so.
Both are supposed to be NJDEP protected parklands, limited to recreational use.
The State failed to conduct proper inspections and enforce regulations…
NJDEP is required to inspect encumbered parklands every 3 years and NJDOE is supposed to inspect “temporary” classrooms (“TCUs”) every year for compliance.
NJDEP didn’t issue diversion violations until ten years after-the-fact.
NJDOE failed to issue NB a violation for the lack of emergency exits in its preschool TCUs , even after a fire destroyed two of them.
NJDOE failed to enforce N.J.A.C. 6A:26-3.13(g), which does not permit TCUs to be used for 24 years, as is the case here.
Since 2001 Mayor Sacco (who is still mayor) and NB have repeatedly stated that the preschool would be removed from Braddock Park. NB sabotaged every plan it made to do so.
In a 07-14-14 letter to North Bergen, NJ DOE acknowledges NB’s Braddock Park plan “to construct a 2 story modular building with approximately 30 classrooms to house a full-day preschool program by summer 2015.”
But 3 months later, in a letter signed by the Hudson County Deputy Administrator, the North Bergen Administrator and NB Superintendent of Schools, officials deceitfully state there isn’t a plan to build a preschool in the park:
“No additional parking, building or any other form of coverage would be brought to this location or any other location within the park.” After NB sabotaged a plan to build a 30-classroom preschool on NB BOE owned land on 64th Street, NB submitted a plan to build a 22-classroom preschool in Braddock Park which did not meet NJDOE regulations. Now NB is asking NJDEP to approve a plan for 14-classroom preschool which seemingly also does not meet NJDOE regulations.
NB continually touts the safe location of its preschool, even though a pedestrian crossing JF Kennedy Boulevard (a busy county road), was fatally injured in the crosswalk by a car, a few feet from a parking lot which the NB Preschool utilizes.
The HC Sheriff’s accident report states:
“The area of the crash, at that time of day, has a high amount of vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the area due to the pre-school located in the area.”
Had the preschool not been illegally situated in the park this fatality might not have occurred.
Neither of the two parking lots the NB Preschool utilizes in Braddock Park have traffic control devices at their entrance/exit on JF Kennedy Boulevard.
In 2022 HC applied to NJPTA’s “Local Safety Program” for funding to install a traffic light close to where the pedestrian was run over.
HC’s application falsely states that from 2017 thru 2019 there were 17 accidents in this area and “None involved pedestrian or bicyclist”.
HC’s application failed to submit five years of crash data and contained other problematic submissions.
At a 10-24-24 HC Commissioners meeting, NB Commissioner Vainieri falsely claimed the preschool doesn’t use the driveway leading to the preschool, despite photos and videos to the contrary.
This driveway/road does not meet State guidelines because it is too narrow and it lacks sidewalks.
HC’s NJPTA application also seeks funding to build a new and safer preschool road, parallel to the current road, despite a 09-22-15 Hudson County Office of the Engineer memo which states:
“A suggestion was made to make to make another driveway parallel; to the existing which will cut deep into the woods and the suggestion was rejected. There was a concern with rock out cropping’s [sic] in the proposed widening.”
Nevertheless, HC spokeswoman Mary Cygan disingenuously stated in a 12-25-24 Jersey Journal article “The road safety project … is unrelated to the pre-K trailers or the diversion project”.
This would be HC’s third desecration of Braddock Park. In 2021 and 2024 HC removed acres of trees and other foliage because of crime and homeless people living in the woods in close proximity to the preschool.
In 2018 NB devised a Long Range Facilities Plan (“LRFP”), which was approved by NJDEP. The LRFP was to acquire the unused 10 acre High Tech school facility in NB and convert it to a junior high school. Seventh and eighth graders were to be removed from elementary schools and placed in High Tech JHS and all the preschoolers were to be removed from Braddock Park and placed in the District’s elementary schools. In a special 2018 referendum, NB voters approved the expenditure of $65 million to accomplish this LRFP and then NB sabotaged it, falsely claiming it hasn’t enough room in the elementary schools. NB currently has about 1100 seventh and eighth graders and only 169 preschoolers (including 14 full-time).
NB states there is a potential for 395 preschoolers; even if this is true, there is room for them in the elementary schools.
A 05-31-16 NJDEP memo written by Caroline Armstrong states “Steve and I discussed the need to coordinate with DOE so we understand their requirements, we hire a consultant to review alternatives analysis moving forward who understands DOE standards, but also to official {sic}inform the DOE about the diversion/conversion.”
NJDEP rejected its own employees’ wise advice and didn’t hire a consultant.
Now is the time to hire a consultant and end the desecration to Braddock Park.
The public’s trust has been betrayed and its tax dollars wasted.
Robert Walden
The HC Sheriff’s accident report states:
“The area of the crash, at that time of day, has a high amount of vehicular and pedestrian traffic in the area due to the pre-school located in the area.”
Had the preschool not been illegally situated in the park this fatality might not have occurred.
Neither of the two parking lots the NB Preschool utilizes in Braddock Park have traffic control devices at their entrance/exit on JF Kennedy Boulevard.
In 2022 HC applied to NJPTA’s “Local Safety Program” for funding to install a traffic light close to where the pedestrian was run over.
HC’s application falsely states that from 2017 thru 2019 there were 17 accidents in this area and “None involved pedestrian or bicyclist”.
HC’s application failed to submit five years of crash data and contained other problematic submissions.
At a 10-24-24 HC Commissioners meeting, NB Commissioner Vainieri falsely claimed the preschool doesn’t use the driveway leading to the preschool, despite photos and videos to the contrary.
This driveway/road does not meet State guidelines because it is too narrow and it lacks sidewalks.
HC’s NJPTA application also seeks funding to build a new and safer preschool road, parallel to the current road, despite a 09-22-15 Hudson County Office of the Engineer memo which states:
“A suggestion was made to make to make another driveway parallel; to the existing which will cut deep into the woods and the suggestion was rejected. There was a concern with rock out cropping’s [sic] in the proposed widening.”
Nevertheless, HC spokeswoman Mary Cygan disingenuously stated in a 12-25-24 Jersey Journal article “The road safety project … is unrelated to the pre-K trailers or the diversion project”.
This would be HC’s third desecration of Braddock Park. In 2021 and 2024 HC removed acres of trees and other foliage because of crime and homeless people living in the woods in close proximity to the preschool.
In 2018 NB devised a Long Range Facilities Plan (“LRFP”), which was approved by NJDEP. The LRFP was to acquire the unused 10 acre High Tech school facility in NB and convert it to a junior high school. Seventh and eighth graders were to be removed from elementary schools and placed in High Tech JHS and all the preschoolers were to be removed from Braddock Park and placed in the District’s elementary schools. In a special 2018 referendum, NB voters approved the expenditure of $65 million to accomplish this LRFP and then NB sabotaged it, falsely claiming it hasn’t enough room in the elementary schools. NB currently has about 1100 seventh and eighth graders and only 169 preschoolers (including 14 full-time).
NB states there is a potential for 395 preschoolers; even if this is true, there is room for them in the elementary schools.
A 05-31-16 NJDEP memo written by Caroline Armstrong states “Steve and I discussed the need to coordinate with DOE so we understand their requirements, we hire a consultant to review alternatives analysis moving forward who understands DOE standards, but also to official {sic}inform the DOE about the diversion/conversion.”
NJDEP rejected its own employees’ wise advice and didn’t hire a consultant.
Now is the time to hire a consultant and end the desecration to Braddock Park.
The public’s trust has been betrayed and its tax dollars wasted.
Robert Walden
North Bergen