Hudson TV News

North Bergen resident Robert Walden has submitted the following letter to the editor to Hudson TV as a follow up to his previous submission after the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Governor Mikie Sherrill failed to respond to his initial concerns with regard to Braddock Park:

Ms. Sapp, Ms. Yeany, Ms. Lawrence and Mr. Guzek,

You are long-time NJ DEP employees who failed/fail to abide by and enforce State and Federal regulations and your actions/inaction are a threat to encumbered and supposedly protected park lands throughout NJ as well as to the good intentions of these regulations.

Nicholas Sacco was concurrently North Bergen State Senator, Mayor and Assistant Superintendent of Schools (he is still Mayor), when North Bergen committed the following violations:
In 1999 North Bergen illegally diverted its NJ DEP encumbered 43rd Street Park for fire department use.
In 2001 North Bergen illegally diverted Hudson County’s Braddock Park for North Bergen’s 17-trailer preschool, a violation of NJ DEP AND US National Park Service LWCF regulations.

Ms. Sapp – your father was the first commissioner of NJ DEP – you should have used better judgment.
Ms. Yeany and Mr. Guzek – as attorneys, you should not have allowed misconduct to occur within the department, you should have instead sought compliance in a timely manner.
Ms. Lawrence – you inspected the Braddock Park preschool land in 2001, just weeks before school opened, but you didn’t issue violation notices and since then, you, along with the others have failed to do your job.

You all knew that North Bergen violated State and Federal environmental regulations and you also knew that The NJ Department of Education did not approve the preschool’s location in Braddock Park and that temporary classroom units (“TCUs”/trailers), are not permitted by State law to be in service for 24 years, yet you did nothing.

You didn’t inspect the encumbered park lands every 3 years, as regulations require.
Inspections were conducted in 2001, 2005 and 2010 but NJ DEP didn’t issue violation notices as NJ DEP should have, until 2011.
You didn’t report the violations to US National Park Service LWCF (as you were required to), until almost 3 years after NJ DEP issued the 2011 State violation notices.
You allowed the National Park Service LWCF conversion decision to be swayed by North Bergen misinformation pertaining to its illegal Federal conversion of Braddock Park.

You approved a 2002 NJ DEP Green Acres financial grant to North Bergen to renovate a playing field adjacent to the preschool, which the preschool inappropriately utilized and you failed to notice that North Bergen’s grant application included photographs of the illegally situated preschool.

You told North Bergen it could put preschool classrooms in its existing community center (which it didn’t do), then you gave North Bergen $1 million to build a new community center which didn’t contain any classrooms.

You approved a $1 million grant to renovate a North Bergen Board of Education ball field even though these grants are restricted to towns; they are not for Boards of Education.

You allowed the preschool to continue to operate even though you knew that the preschool TCUs were not properly inspected by NJ DOE annually as required; if they were, NJ DOE would have noticed that the TCUs lacked required emergency exits; this condition persisted even after a fire destroyed two TCUs and until I reported the violation.

You allowed millions of dollars to be misspent on North Bergen’s multiple diversion applications, none of which has been concluded.

You instructed North Bergen to provide RFP/RFQs and cost analyses justifying its supposed need to divert Braddock Park land and even though North Bergen didn’t provide them, you did nothing.

You allowed North Bergen to under estimate the amount of land it illegally diverted without any consequences and without proper compensation.

You haven’t released the minutes of the August 13, 2025 public hearing pertaining to North Bergen’s diversion application.

You haven’t insisted that North Bergen remove ALL its trailers from Braddock Park even though as of this past September North Bergen placed all its preschoolers in educational facilities in the community after the public pointed out the fallacies regarding North Bergen’s supposed need for preschool facilities in Braddock Park.

You haven’t demanded that North Bergen replace the land it illegally diverted with 5:1 compensatory replacement land, as environmental regulations require.

You haven’t demanded an accounting for lease payments that you said North Bergen was supposed to pay to Hudson County for the preschool’s use of Braddock Park.

You haven’t demanded that North Bergen return the land it improperly diverted to proper recreational use as environmental regulations require.  (The land was previously a ball field).

You don’t answer questions and complaints about the diversion nor about North Bergen’s current application to NJ DEP Green Acres for a 2026 financial grant.

WORST OF ALL, NJ DEP’s failure to take timely corrective action is related to the violent vehicular death of a pedestrian who was run over in the crosswalk leading to a parking lot utilized by the North Bergen Preschool.
The Hudson County Sheriff’s accident report narrative makes the connection between the accident and the “high amount of vehicular and pedestrian traffic due to the preschool“.
You have to live with the awful knowledge that you might have been able to prevent this death.

For many years the dangerous roadways and walkways in Braddock Park were pointed out to NJ DEP, NJ DOE, North Bergen and Hudson County but nothing was done, even though North Bergen-Hudson County engineers recommended corrective action.

“It shall be the Department’s presumption that there is a feasible, reasonable and available alternative not involving parkland for the project for which an applicant seeks to divert.” – N.J.A.C. 7:36-26.1.
You failed to abide by the intent of this regulation.  Encumbered park lands throughout the State need to be protected, not dissected!

I and many others demand a meaningful response to the preceding allegations which have been documented and sent to you over the past 12 years.

Sincerely,

Robert Walden

North Bergen, NJ