Last week a New Jersey Senate panel approved a bill authored by State Sen. Edward O’Connor (D-31st Dist.) that will provide funding for parks in Jersey City and other Hudson County towns. “Parks and ball fields provide enormous recreational opportunities for citizens, and this funding will help develop more parks and ball fields,” O’Connor said in a statement after the Senate Environment Committee approved his bill. “This represents a tremendous positive for the residents of Jersey City and Hudson County.” The bill, S-776, designates $2 million to be split up across the county, funding various projects that involve outdoor and recreational uses. Jersey City, in the process of planning to build a new reservoir, Reservoir 3 in Pershing Field, would be slated to receive $500,00 for that project. According to a press release issued by O’Connor’s office, $500,000 would also be designated for North Bergen to use on its 76th Street Little League complex. West New York would receive $500,000 for the Miller Stadium II project, while an additional $500,000 grant would be made available to Weehawken for its Weehawken Stadium IV plan. The bill also includes funding for assorted urban parks and fields across the rest of the state. O’Connor’s legislation allocates a total of $9,749,389 in voter-approved Green Acres and Garden State Preservation Trust bond funding. “Providing funding today to build and improve ball fields can help contribute to the next Derek Jeter or Mike Piazza coming from Hudson County,” O’Connor said. “Hoboken gave birth to baseball, so it’s more than fitting we build up local recreation programs to give our young people opportunities to develop their skills.” Created in 1961, the Green Acres program was designed to meet New Jersey’s growing recreation and land conservation needs. The initiative protects and funds land for public use in rural, suburban and urban areas. In November of 1998, the state government passed a referendum on the Green Acres program that created a stable source of funding for open spaces, farmland, historic preservation and recreation land development. Green Acres, operating on $98 million in state sales tax money each year, hopes to create linkages between existing, protected lands, to form open space corridors that will eventually weave throughout the state. Gov. Christie Whitman in 1999 signed into law the Garden State Preservation Trust Act, which allows the state to preserve one million acres over the next 10 years. Through Green Acres, the state has already protected over 390,000 acres of open spaces. O’Connor’s bill will now be moved to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee for approval before being sent to the State Assembly, and then on to the Governor’s Office for final approval.
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