To the editor:
Recently, the Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund Advisory Board, of which I am a recent appointee, approved recommending an allocation of $12,330,558 to 57 of the 70 municipalities within the county, as well as to the county itself. Of great interest to Emerson residents is the recommended allocation of $1,500,000 to the County of Bergen to complete its purchase of the former Emerson Country Club, now known as Soldier Hill Golf Course.
Last year, the county purchased the golf course itself but the Bergen County Improvement Authority (BCIA) purchased the five developable acres adjacent to the golf course. Over the past year, the county contemplated how to utilize the property. The freeholders have determined that the five acres should now be added to the Bergen County parks system to remain as open space forever along with the rest of the course.
The county will apply for a matching $1,500,000 grant from the state’s Green Acres Trust Fund to complete the purchase of approximately $3,000,000 from the BCIA.
Many thanks are in order to County Executive Jim Tedesco, and all the freeholders including Freeholder Chairman Germaine M. Ortiz, an Emerson resident herself, and freeholder liaison to the Board Steve Tanelli.
Lou Lamatina
Emerson
The writer is the immediate past mayor of Emerson.
Editor’s note: Emerson Councilman Kenneth Hoffman added the following reaction on Facebook:
Early last year, then councilwoman (now mayor) Danielle DiPaola and I attended a freeholders meeting to ask questions about the 5-acre parcel in the front and express our concerns that it was not part of the larger area purchased with Open Space funds. It is a relief that the freeholders listened to our pleas and have added that once developable parcel to the county park system, thus keeping it open space forever.
-Councilman Kenneth Hoffman