CLARK — Union County’s plans to install a new recreation complex on the shores of the Clark Resevoir have begun to circulate online. Preliminary plans for the site include a dual-season play area, an ice rink, boat launches, hiking trails, a fishing platform, parking areas, a smallscale train ride and other ammenities.
During Monday’s regular meeting of the Clark Township Council, Mayor Sal Bonaccorso addressed recent concerns among residents regarding the county’s intentions.
“I was able to sell that to Union County many years ago for one dollar, and it was probably one of the best things I could have done. I knew someday it was going to take and need dredging,” Mayor Bonaccorso said, adding that the county is far more financially equipped to handle upkeep at the property than the municipality would have been on its own.
The Union County Board of County Commissioners intends to allocate about $18 million in state and federal funds, including $10 million in American Rescue Plan funds, to dredging the resevoir, clearing garbage and debris from the surrounding shorelines and installing the new recreation spaces.
Mayor Bonaccorso stressed that he has always believed the reservoir needed dredging because of the environmental aspect of flooding and the water being cluttered with islands of vegetation.
“We have talked to [the county] for quite some time back and forth on it,” he said. “They’ve more or less been letting us know what their ideas are; nothing at this time is etched in stone.”
He also urged residents to e-mail any of their concerns to Union County Manager Ed Oatman and to include himself and Business Administrator Jim Ulrich in the e-mail so they can also know what residents’ concerns are and what is being sent to the county.
Councilman Brian P. Toal agreed that dredging the reservoir will be beneficial, but expressed his preference that the area be left in a more natural state.
“We’re only caretakers of this time, folks, and I’m sitting here wasting yours to talk about an issue that should have been resolved years ago,” Councilman Toal said. “We don’t just put a bunch of Playlands. This is not Disney World South or North this is Clark. This is Union County. Let’s take care of God’s property once and for all.”
Mayor Bonacorsso added to Councilman Toals’s statements, noting that if the township begins to discourage recreation activities in the reservoir, the county might fill the space to build affordable housing apartments.
Resident Ellen Mulligan addressed the Township Council during public comment to express her support for the reservoir to remain an open space.
“I’m totally against any building on the reservoir property,” Ms. Mulligan said, “Let’s keep it as God intended it and keep it as natural as we can, open space so our future generations can enjoy it.”
Mr. Oatman is currently working with Mayor Bonacorrso to host a Town Hall meeting sometime in June to address residents’ concerns and discuss the county’s plan for the reservoir.
