Grant Awarded for Tedesco Park Rehabilitation

Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. (third from left) presents a $150,000 grant to Roseland Mayor James Spango (second from left). The funds came from the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund and are part of the 2020 Local Aid Program. Roseland will use the grant to support the rehabilitation of Tedesco Park. With them are Essex County Chief of Staff Phil Alagia and Essex County Parks Director Dan Salvante, who also serves as Municipal Liaison to Roseland. This is the sixth round of grant funding Essex County has provided to the municipalities from the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund since 2003.

Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. announced that Essex County awarded $3.15 million in Local Aid grants to 21 municipalities in Essex County. The funds came from the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund and will be used to improve municipal playgrounds, recreation and athletic facilities, community swimming pools and parks infrastructure. This is the sixth round of grant funding Essex County has provided to the municipalities from the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund since 2003.

“I am pleased to partner with our municipalities and the Trust Fund to modernize athletic fields, create skate parks, upgrade community pool infrastructure, restore public gardens, build playgrounds, stabilize waterways and acquire open space, to name just a few of the projects funded by this program through the years. These improvements have kept our parks up to date and enabled our open spaces to meet the changing needs and growing demands of our residents,” DiVincenzo said. “When the 2020 application process for the Local Aid Program began last year, the Coronavirus was not even on our radar. Now, as restrictions are being lifted and we return to a new normal, our parks and recreation spaces will have an even greater role than before. Families breaking free of stay-at-home orders will be looking for outlets and the construction contracts that will be awarded will help jumpstart the economy and create jobs, just as we did with the program in 2009 after the Great Recession,” he added.

The Borough of Roseland was awarded $150,000 to rehabilitate Tedesco Park. Numerous ideas are being discussed for rehabbing the park at this time.