RIVER EDGE NJ – The River Edge NJ county parks director said he would consider moving the route of a proposed riverfront walkway to avoid encroaching on a historic battlefield.

At a meeting with the Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commission Wednesday, Parks Department Director Ray Dressler said he would consider an alternate route proposed by the commission that would lead walkers to the historic site along roads instead of over a Hackensack River inlet.

“I have no problem looking at alternatives,” Dressler told the commission, adding that he would ride along with commission members to look at an alternate route that would take walkers from the river, up Commerce Way and then along Hackensack Avenue to end near a proposed visitor’s center that the commission hopes to build.

Dressler said he requested the meeting to address the commission’s concerns about the pathway.

The plans as drawn call for constructing a bridge 10- to 12-feet-wide across Coles Brook, Dressler said. Many commission members and historians regard the bridge as an unwelcome present-day addition to a historically significant portion of the site.

“The location is highly problematic,” said Kevin Wright, the commission secretary. “The location comes directly onto the landing itself into the very core of the historic district — the very area we want to reduce modern intrusions, not expand them.”

Dressler said Wednesday that parks vehicles would be allowed to drive over the bridge. Other county officials have stated previously that the bridge could provide access to emergency vehicles.

Ongoing friction between the two entities stems as much from a struggle over the county’s proposed improvements to the Campbell-Christie House as from the proposed walkway itself.

Society members feel that county officials overstepped their bounds by commissioning a historic structures report finished in 2007 that documented the existing condition of the house and suggested improvements to the building.

Under a lease agreement between the county, which owns the house, and the Bergen County Historical Society, which owns the land, the society is responsible for restoration work at the house and entitled to be “substantially involved in the planning of its use.”

The county is responsible for paying for expenses such as utilities and structural repairs, according to the lease.

Some commission members said the report violates their right to be substantially involved, pointing specifically to sections that call for the building to house museum displays, rather than the historical programming for which it is currently used.

Dressler said the county would address the report more thoroughly in a second meeting with the commission next week, and noted that the report was written by a third party rather than county officials.

Michael Trepicchio, president of the Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commission, said the commission members did not receive a copy of the report until January, more than a year after it was completed.

“The way the society perceives it and sees it, there’s a breakdown in communication,” Trepicchio said.

In February, River Edge building inspector Robert Byrnes declared the house to be an unsafe structure without inspecting it. Byrnes said he based the violation on information contained in the historic structures report and letters from a certified engineer who inspected the property.

A letter from architect Thomas Connolly dated Feb. 3, 2009 cites the engineer’s report and says that some beams don’t meet load-carrying requirements and that one chimney in the attic shows stress cracks and is “subject to failure.”

In a letter to the society, Dressler advised that activity in the house should be limited to small-scale visitation on the ground floor and no activity in the attic.

RIVER EDGE – The county parks director said he would consider moving the route of a proposed riverfront walkway to avoid encroaching on a historic battlefield.

At a meeting with the Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commission Wednesday, Parks Department Director Ray Dressler said he would consider an alternate route proposed by the commission that would lead walkers to the historic site along roads instead of over a Hackensack River inlet.

“I have no problem looking at alternatives,” Dressler told the commission, adding that he would ride along with commission members to look at an alternate route that would take walkers from the river, up Commerce Way and then along Hackensack Avenue to end near a proposed visitor’s center that the commission hopes to build.

Dressler said he requested the meeting to address the commission’s concerns about the pathway.

The plans as drawn call for constructing a bridge 10- to 12-feet-wide across Coles Brook, Dressler said. Many commission members and historians regard the bridge as an unwelcome present-day addition to a historically significant portion of the site.

“The location is highly problematic,” said Kevin Wright, the commission secretary. “The location comes directly onto the landing itself into the very core of the historic district — the very area we want to reduce modern intrusions, not expand them.”

Dressler said Wednesday that parks vehicles would be allowed to drive over the bridge. Other county officials have stated previously that the bridge could provide access to emergency vehicles.

Ongoing friction between the two entities stems as much from a struggle over the county’s proposed improvements to the Campbell-Christie House as from the proposed walkway itself.

Society members feel that county officials overstepped their bounds by commissioning a historic structures report finished in 2007 that documented the existing condition of the house and suggested improvements to the building.

Under a lease agreement between the county, which owns the house, and the Bergen County Historical Society, which owns the land, the society is responsible for restoration work at the house and entitled to be “substantially involved in the planning of its use.”

The county is responsible for paying for expenses such as utilities and structural repairs, according to the lease.

Some commission members said the report violates their right to be substantially involved, pointing specifically to sections that call for the building to house museum displays, rather than the historical programming for which it is currently used.

Dressler said the county would address the report more thoroughly in a second meeting with the commission next week, and noted that the report was written by a third party rather than county officials.

Michael Trepicchio, president of the Historic New Bridge Landing Park Commission, said the commission members did not receive a copy of the report until January, more than a year after it was completed.

“The way the society perceives it and sees it, there’s a breakdown in communication,” Trepicchio said.

In February, River Edge building inspector Robert Byrnes declared the house to be an unsafe structure without inspecting it. Byrnes said he based the violation on information contained in the historic structures report and letters from a certified engineer who inspected the property.

A letter from architect Thomas Connolly dated Feb. 3, 2009 cites the engineer’s report and says that some beams don’t meet load-carrying requirements and that one chimney in the attic shows stress cracks and is “subject to failure.”

In a letter to the society, Dressler advised that activity in the house should be limited to small-scale visitation on the ground floor and no activity in the attic.

Story Provided by North Jersey.com

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