Today, the coalition of six Mayors in Hoboken, Union City, Guttenberg, West New York, North Bergen and Weehawken came to the joint decision to keep all municipal parks in the respective municipalities closed until further notice, out of a concern regarding public health due to COVID-19. The North Hudson Mayors are currently working with Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise and the Freeholders to determine whether any County parks in their municipalities will reopen.

Earlier today, Governor Murphy announced that state parks would reopen on May 2nd (with social distancing and other measures in place), while leaving county parks up to the discretion of counties.  Municipalities have maintained jurisdiction over their own parks as to whether to close them or keep them open during the COVID-19 shutdown. 

Below is a joint statement from Mayor Ravi Bhalla, Mayor Brian Stack, Mayor Wayne Zitt, Mayor Nick Sacco, Mayor Gabriel Rodriguez and Mayor Richard Turner:

“As Mayors in the most densely populated county in the country with over 14,000 COVID-19 infections, we strongly believe that leaving all municipal parks closed in our respective cities is in the best interest of public health. While we are planning for the eventual re-opening of our parks and know how important they are to our residents, we remain concerned about the potential overcrowding and enforcement of social distancing. Out of an abundance of caution, we made the collective decision to keep our municipal parks closed until further notice. We thank Governor Murphy for working with us to allow each city to make these respective decisions and look forward to collaborating with County Executive Tom DeGise and our Freeholders to make final decisions on County parks by the end of the week.”