Assists Bergen County In Preserving and Opening Van Buskirk Island To Public
On April 8, 2010, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and Bergen County will host a public meeting to discuss Waterworks Restoration design concepts with residents, interested community groups, and elected officials.Open to the public, this meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Oradell Borough Hall (upstairs meeting room), where a panel of experts from Rutgers University, Mark B. Thompson Associates, Bergen County, the Water Works Conservancy, and the Hackensack Riverkeeper will present restoration proposals and respond to audience questions and comments.
This meeting is a follow up to the design charrette and public discussions that were held on November 14, 2009, which led to the preparation of a Process & Outcomes report by Wolfram Hoefer, landscape architecture professor, and Beth Ravit, environmental sciences professor, at the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. Through the joint efforts of Rutgers faculty members, landscape architecture students, and local officials, the university continues to be involved in this important project, assisting Bergen County in its attempts to open the Van Buskirk Island to the public as a unique part of the Bergen County Parks system.
Rutgers will serve as co-host of the April 8 public meeting that will include a review of the necessary steps to preserve the historic buildings and Van Buskirk Island, which is located in the Hackensack River in the Borough of Oradell, adjacent to the Borough of New Milford. Van Buskirk Island houses the original waterworks treatment plant that was built by the Hackensack Water Company (now known as United Water). The island itself was created from an original peninsula formation in the middle of the Hackensack River in order to allow water to flow into the waterworks treatment facility. The pumping station dates back to 1882 and supplied water to Hackensack and the surrounding areas until 1990, when it ceased operations. In 1993, the land was transferred to Bergen County. The buildings are listed on the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, but have sat vacant since the plant closed.
Based on the public comments that were made at the November 14 discussions, the professional design team will present options for stabilizing the site’s historical architecture and increasing public access to the site, while protecting the sensitive ecosystem of the Hackensack River riparian zone. The team has kept in mind the goals of local environmentalists and historical preservationists, as well as Bergen County’s ongoing financial responsibilities related to the island’s upkeep and maintenance.
This project is assisted in part by funding from the Bergen County Historic Preservation Trust Fund, a part of the Bergen County Open Space, Recreation, Farmland and Historic Preservation Trust Fund, and from the Garden State Historic Preservation Trust administered by the New Jersey Historic Trust, created by law in 1967 to preserve New Jersey's historic resources across the state.
Media Contact: Beth Ravit
732-932-9800, ext. 620
E-mail: ravit@aesop.rutgers.edu