Politics & Government

Rec Commission Seeks Grant for New Walking Path

Paved path around the municipal recreation complex the subject of an Open Space grant application.

You head out of your house in Oakland on a summer evening, or a Saturday afternoon—where do you go for a stroll?

The Oakland Recreation Commission is hoping that, with the help of a county grant, residents will have a new walking path around the recreation complex to take to their leisure.

“Oakland doesn’t have a lot of sidewalk jogging and walking space,” Recreation Commission Chair Mike Guadagnino said. “This will provide that.”

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As with the Great Oak Park project, which also has Guadagnino at the helm, the idea had kicked around for years.

“Last year we said: let’s stop talking and start doing,” he said.

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That meant raising the cash, and the final step in that process is an application for a $50,000 Bergen County Open Space grant, approved by the borough council on July 24. If the county gives the go-ahead, the grant will be matched by the Rec Commission, with cash from its trust fund in addition to $26,000 raised by the Sports Association of Oakland at this year’s Oakland Carnival.

The path would wrap around the fields, cutting through a small wooded area at the south end of the complex. In response to concerns raised by the council about stray baseballs landing along the path, Guadagnino said that there would be minimal risk.

Guadagnino said that, with the fields bringing in sports game attendees and given their proximity to the Senior Center, he expected the walking path would be an amenity used by many Oakland residents.

“It’s really an attraction, and people will come to walk and talk,” he said.


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