Over the past couple of months and over this past weekend at our Halloween Parade, I’ve been asked by a number of people “what’s going on at the Reservoir” and for totally understandable reasons.
As you are likely aware this past year has been a tough time for the Alliance and the Reservoir itself, even outside of everything else we as a city, as a country, as an entire world, have been struggling with. For almost nine months, you joined us in a campaign to alter the plans put forth by the City of Jersey City, which would have turned Reservoir #3 into a much more stereotypical, manicured and modern city park as opposed to the historic and wild space community members have come to know and love. In April, the Fulop administration assured us that we were heard and came to a compromise with us such that we were comfortable participating in the groundbreaking to celebrate finally coming one step closer to making the site accessible to all. We thanked you for your support and planned to spend the summer and fall offering programs around the city and online.
Those plans unfortunately have not worked out. Over the summer, we learned that much of the work being done was not within the parameters we had agreed upon, and that significant damage to the site had occurred due to the exact kind of carelessness and miscommunication we feared. Hours of labor put in by our volunteers and supporters from too many organizations to list was negated in the blink of an eye, in the form of countless trees, which had been agreed upon to be preserved, being destroyed and in the iconic stone wall itself being damaged.
Our Design and Infrastructure Committee has spent much time over the course of the summer and fall trying to work with the City and trying to fix the problem as much as possible. So far, things are looking up, but we are exhausted and in need of support especially in the form of volunteers and funding. Ironically, we have been so busy it has been hard to totally launch the new volunteer or donations programs we have been looking forward to starting and which would improve our public communications.
All we ask is that you hold tight a little longer and watch for our emails and social posts.
Thank you for your patience, and for your support.
Sarah Burroughs Board President Jersey City Reservoir Preservation Alliance
