West New York officials have broken ground on renovations to Miller Park, the town has announced. The largest park in town, surrounded by a largely residential area, will be getting a facelift.
Miller Park is on Jackson Street, between 57th Street and 59th Street in town. The park is just across the street from the landmark Miller Stadium, which recently underwent renovations as part of a three-pronged park plan which included McEldowney Field and Centennial Field.
Now Miller Park is slated for an overhaul too. Mayor Gabriel Rodriguez, Commissioner Victor Barrera, and the West New York Board of Commissioners along with Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ-08) commemorated the start of the park upgrades with a ceremonial groundbreaking on Saturday, September 10.
The new park will have significant improvements to the playground, basketball court, and open passive areas with benches and walking paths for use by seniors, according to the town. The new playground will also provide the community with areas specifically tailored for children with special needs, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliant.
Some of the other amazing features of the park will include a community garden, a new mini soccer field, a dog park, new basketball courts, security cameras, safe lighting, and landscaping, among other improvements. The planned upgrades were presented to the board at the beginning of the year in January, during the Capital Plan Midterm Review for capital projects by Special Projects Manager Jonathan Castañeda.
The funding for the project comes from federal, state, and local sources. This includes some of the town’s federal COVID-19 relief funds, federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, and Hudson County Open Space Trust Fund money among other sources. Earlier in the year, the local Board of Commissioners adopted an ordinance bonding millions for the improvements.
The park is now closed until the renovations are completed. While the project was initially estimated to be completed in September, it has started in September instead and it is not clear when exactly construction will finish in mid-2023 and the park will reopen.
“We are happy to break ground here at Miller Park,” Rodriguez said in a video by the town touting the groundbreaking. “We want to thank our Congressman Albio Sires for all his hard work in Washington and getting us the funds that completed the project so we can once and for all finish fixing Miller Park. We are excited to say that we will be opening sometime mid-next year. West New York, this park is getting fixed for you.”
Sires, who is retiring from Congress and running for mayor of the town in 2023 when Rodriguez will run for state Assembly, touted the park project as teamwork between himself, the board and the town, and all involved entities. He said work will continue on other town parks to bring them up to snuff.
“This is an example of working together, the Board of Commissioners and myself, what we can bring to West New York,” Sires said. “This is probably the largest park in West New York. It’s going to have an active part of the park, and it’s going to have a passive part of the park, where seniors can come and sit down and enjoy this beautiful park. This all happened because everyone’s working together for the betterment of West New York. So we will continue working to make all our parks as good as this one is going to be.”
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