Index

Community Park Clean-up Project

On October 25, 2003 the East Summit Association performed their first clean-up on our park. When asked how many more clean-ups would be necessary in the overall project, ESA President Bob Sheehan said, "I guess we would be doing this at least three times a year.

The clean-up is part of the Union County Adopt-A-Park program. It is the first stage in a long-term preservation project, connected with the Union County Parks and Recreation Department. The project seeks to restore the park to its original historic natural beauty. Actually, there is a five-year plan drawn by architect/landscaper Sean Ryan, which has been made into a booklet containing all the plans and designs, to be distributed to city officials. BPN is trying to get  a copy of this document.

See the Index Of Park Cleanup Articles that follow the accomplishments of the this project.

Railway Reactivation

In case you haven't heard, the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders is planning to reactivate the Staten Island Railway and the Rahway Valley Railroad that runs along the side of our park. See the Park-Railroad Map>

On May 9, 2002 the county contracted with the Morristown & Erie Railway, Inc. to rebuild the two abandoned rail lines that run through eight municipalities in Union County - at the same time they were telling residents the plan could be cancelled if any municipality objects. - Full Story>

Since then, there has been extensive combined activity in five of the eight municipalities attempting to convince the county to reconsider their decision to reactivate these lines. The BPN staff has been keeping track of these activities through a collection of newspaper articles, editorials, political announcements, et. al.. - See Index Of Railroad Reactivation Articles>

Canada Geese Problem

Every visitor is painfully aware of the numerous Canada geese that inhabit the Park, and the mess that they make. The BPN staff has been tracking the county's progress to "Address Canada geese problem" as they planned in Year 1 of the Briant Park Priorities section of The Master Plan. They started out in 2003 with the elimination of 705 geese from four county parks, but fell short of the 2,700 authorized number when they run into objections from animal rights activists groups.

• If you want to follow this activity in detail, see the Index Of Canada Geese Articles>

• If you have an opinion about this issue, you might want to let the Union County officials know. - See Contact Information>

Briant Pond Dredging Project

The BPN staff is investigating the status of the Briant Pond dredging . We had hoped that future articles would include a schedule for this project; however, it now appears that the project is going nowhere. See the second item below.

• It seems that pollution and a lot of silt in the pond is not a recent problem. See this 1970s article in the local paper.

• The Union County Open Space, Recreation & Historic Preservation Trust Fund does include a plan to "restore Briant Park pond and stabilize the lake/stream shoreline." Refer to Year 2 in the Briant Park Priorities section of The Master Plan. The bad news is that the plan does not say what year the work is to be done. Note that the plan was put together in 1999.

• Here it is - October 2006 - years after the County Master Plan forecasted the dredging of our pond and they are finally getting around to doing something about it. Note also that the original estimate for the job was considerably less than what is currently being estimated (i.e. $650,000 vs. $1,700,000.) If they had done something years ago it would have saved the tax-payer a lot of money. Refer to the current article from the local paper about restoration of county lakes and ponds.

Miscellaneous Union County Parks News

Union County, New Jersey operates 30 parks, reservations, golf courses, tennis courts and other recreational facilities encompassing over 5,600 acres. The county maintains a Website which lists all of these facilities and their locations. Additionally, there is information about other county functions plus links to state and federal government Websites. The following are other county related functions and services: