A better park

Victor Crowell Park should remain a quiet facility geared to passive recreation and nature.

That was the consensus of roughly 40 people who attended the first of four meetings scheduled by the Parks Improvement Committee to gather input for a VCP master plan. The initial session was held on Tuesday, April 1 in the Middlesex Library’s community room.

The meeting was facilitated by two reps from Suburban Consulting Engineers (SCE), a Flanders-based firm retained by the parks committee to compile the master plan.

Audience members who commented tended to want VCP to retain its community feel, with steps taken to enhance it with low-intensity improvements. The potential upgrades mentioned included a walking path, nature trails and steps to dissuade the presence of geese on the shorelines.

The improvement effort does not yet have details or a budget. SCE will take the audience comments as well as the results of an online survey and draw up the master plan. Borough officials in attendance said grants would be sought to help fund the project, which would likely be spread over a period of years.

The Borough Council held a public hearing several weeks ago, part of the application process for a state grant to help fund the park upgrade.

While there was plenty of positive audience input, there was also a bit of skepticism.

At one point, audience members literally applauded the Department of Public Works’ ongoing efforts to maintain the park. But a few questioned if the municipality would adequately maintain any future upgrades.

There was also mention of water quality issues in VCP’s Creighton Lake. Thousands of fish were killed in 2021 when surfactant from nearby Spray-Tek washed into the lake along with raw sewage after a water main break in Piscataway.

Borough Administrator Michael LaPlace told Inside – Middlesex that the municipality is involved in mediation with New Jersey American Water Co. over the lake’s water quality. 

Rich Thomasey, who lives adjacent to VCP and serves on the parks committee, said that group has been discussing potential improvements for the past two years. They include some of the items mentioned by the audience at the master plan meeting.

Sixty-five homes are contiguous to the park, Thomasey said. That’s a consideration in whatever improvements might take place there, he said.

He noted that the Middlesex community pool sits adjacent to a residential area. If the pool were to be sited today, it would likely be placed in a different location, Thomasey pointed out, due to its impact on the nearby neighborhood.

“We don’t want to create problems,” he said of the VCP master plan. “It’s important to maintain the quaint, community nature of the park.”

At the meeting, it was noted that the 7.5-acre park was created in 1935 as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration projects. The original construction cost was $44,000, according to an SCE rep.

The facility was originally named Willow Park due to the presence of a large willow tree on the lake’s island. The park was later renamed after Victor Crowell, a Middlesex Borough resident and West Point graduate who was killed in World War II.

The next session in the master plan series will be held at 6 p.m., Tuesday, May 6 at the Victor Crowell Park annex building, which is the former Auto Express site.

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