WOODCLIFF LAKE—Mayor Carlos Rendo told council members May 17 that he wants to move ahead with efforts to gather public input and put out a request for proposals to advance plans for a long-discussed Galaxy Gardens park while the borough awaits a final thumbs up from its site site remediation professional on the site cleanup.
The site, at the busy intersection of Woodcliff Avenue and Werimus Road, was formerly a garden center and also a service station, both which left soil contamination due to pesticides and gasoline residues, costing the borough hundreds of thousands of dollars to remediate.
During his reorganization address in January, Rendo pressed for action on the 2.1-acre park site, purchased over three years ago in early 2018 for $1.65 million. Since then, the borough has spent $355,000 on clearing, grading and remediating contaminated soil on the site.
At a hearing on the borough’s application for an approximate $200,000 matching grant for park development at Galaxy Gardens, several residents said they felt the borough was moving ahead without proper planning for the park and future costs unknown.
Resident Alex Couto said he wanted to know what a “future budget” for the park would look like, wondering how much officials planned to spend on park amenities and other park-related improvements.
Borough Administrator Tom Padilla noted with several county grants nearly in hand, including $500,000 being held by the county and due to be released upon final site cleanup certification, the borough has been able to put aside close to half the cost of cleanup, design and construction via county grants over the years.
Another longtime resident said the borough needed to get more community input on what the park should include. Following the gathering of community input, she said, then the borough can put out a request for proposals to solicit park designs from landscape architects.
Councilman Stephen Falanga suggested holding a Zoom session soon to gather public input on what type of park residents would like to see at the site. Most council members agreed with the suggestion.
In addition, Councilwoman Jackie Gadaleta suggested taking a community survey, likely a flyer to appear in the June borough newsletter, to gather as much public input as possible from residents about the park.
Borough Engineer Evan Jacobs said that the council can “absolutely” move onto park planning and design, and should likely be eligible to collect its long-delayed $500,000 in county grant funds when it gets its final site remediation document in hand.