In what town officials may see as a symbol of the changing nature of Secaucus, a major renovation for Buchmuller Park will be included in the 2002 capital improvement budget.
This will include the construction of a band shell for public performances, work on the patio section of the park, and a new concession stand for the ice rink.
"We have set aside money in our capital improvement budget," said Town Administrator Anthony Iacono, who said the estimated cost would be about $500,000.
In unveiling the blue prints and design by Architect John Capazzi – the same architect who designed the new town library on Paterson Plank Road – officials said the project will include a 1,440 square-foot field house, which will provide sorely needed locker space for the ice rink’s recreation program.
"We currently have temporary trailers to provide that space," said Mayor Dennis Elwell. "These are unsightly – especially at one of the critical entrances to the town."
Elwell said the success of the summer concert series was one of the factors that prompted the move, although he said the new space could also make up for the town’s lack of a public performing space, and could be utilized by the various music programs at the school for their public performances.
The changes to the park would include knocking down the cinderblock retaining wall and the existing gazebo to make way for the band shell.
"We found that the gazebo was nearly useless during the summer concert series," Elwell said. "This won’t be the PNC Center, but it will allow us to hold events."
A two-tiered oval seating area will surround the bandstand, allowing concertgoers to watch a performance more comfortably. Over the last two summers, visitors to the park’s concerts either had to sit on folding metal chairs or bring their own lawn chairs. With the wide grass area nearby, residents can still bring their own chairs or blankets, officials said.
Elwell said he felt the 40th anniversary of the park was a good time to consider upgrading its facilities, and to supply the ice rink with more acceptable accommodations. He said the annex for lockers would include a unisex bathroom, lockers, and now showers.
The town hopes to receive bids by January and award the contract in February, and will possibly had the park finished in time for Fourth of July festivities.
Buchmuller Park – 40 years ago
Forty years ago, residents in the Plaza section of Secaucus might have been puzzled when they saw Mayor James Moore and other local officials plodding through the property behind the town library, a vacant piece of real estate that had largely served as a dump since the end of World War Two. Dressed in suits, these men paused, unraveled a roll of paper and stared out at the dismal landscape as if they could see something no one else could.
Indeed, a move to build a park on that site was a dream of the mayor and council then, a kind of return to a time before the pig farms, trash dumps and slaughter houses when Secaucus was largely responsible for New Jersey acquiring the title of Garden State.
The park – named after Albert Buchmuller, the man who dedicated the land – became a symbol of a new Secaucus at a time when dumps and swamps gave way to a more modern Secaucus. Local officials like Michael J. Marra, chairman of the park’s Citizen’s Committee, and then-Mayor F. Moore, got together with business people like Buchmuller and national leaders like Congressman Dominick V. Daniels to help provide a place where people could gather. Daniels, in helping to dedicate the project, called it a means to deter juvenile delinquency. It would also be an investment in the health of people young and old.
Of the $300,000 needed to construct the park, Buchmuller donated $217,000. He died at 74 a few months work began on the park. But he could well afford the donation since he was – at the time of his death – the head of the multimillion dollar Service Transport trucking empire.
Dennis Pope – who served as recreation facilities coordinator from 1979 to 1985 as well as other roles in municipal government over the years – had particular insight into the park’s development since his uncle, Herman Pope, was a member of the town council at the time.
"This marked the town’s first large investment into recreation," Pope said. "Back then, didn’t have any multi purpose park. Most recreation was schoolyard-based. There were a couple of ball fields – one where the current Clarendon School stands and another at Kane Stadium. We also had a couple of playgrounds, one at the old Clarendon School, where the Elms (senior citizen building) is today, and another by Huber Street School."
The project as proposed in 1962 included a Little League stadium, an ice rink and other park amenities.
"The ice rink was an open area at the time," Pope pointed out. "Ironically, it was planned as a roller-skate rink, but since roller skating wasn’t popular, they put up an ice rink instead."
In the mid-1990s, roller-skating came back into fashion and the town added a rink in the north end near the swimming pool. As the popularity grew, the ice rink was given over to indoor roller hockey during warm weather.
Pope remembered playing at the Buchmuller Park site before the park was built.
"We used to play touch football where the rink is today," he said.
The area was at the time part dump and part marshland. The town was in transition. The library-fire house was constructed in the late 1950s. So was the Acme supermarket across the street.
"The town wanted to create a place where they could have a variety of events," Pope said. "They wanted something that would attract the entire community from young kids to senior citizens."
Pope said many of the amenities the town currently enjoys did not exist in the early 1960s. The town nutrition center where senior citizens groups gather was a nightclub. The town’s first recreation center – established in the 1970s – was a former movie theater that had been taken over as a dance hall and rink for professional boxing.
"Buchmuller Park was a big step forward," Pope said. "Before we had that park, teens and pre-teen kids tended to socialize in different sections of town. There was nothing to bring you into the center of town.."
While over the years, the town has added onto the facility, the basic design has remained the same. In 1975, the park saw the addition of a gazebo as part of the town’s 75th Anniversary. During the 1990s, the town improved basketball courts, upgraded its playground equipment and spent $400,000 to put a roof on the ice rink.
"But the original design helped change the nature of this town, helping us turn a corner," Pope said. "It gave us a place to hold organized activities, and by constructing the park, the town made a much grander commitment to recreation." – Al Sullivan