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WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-8) joined today with the N.J. Community Development Corporation and the U.S. National Park Service in announcing an agreement to establish the Great Falls Youth Corps – a youth employment project aimed at enhancing the public’s experience of the coming Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park.
“The Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park will certainly strengthen Paterson’s link with its historic past, but the founding of the youth corps is a wonderful way to connect the Great Falls with the city’s future,” said Pascrell, a lifelong resident and former mayor of Paterson. The congressman sponsored the legislation signed by President Barack Obama this year that designated the Great Falls historic district as a national park.
“The young people who participate in the Great Falls Youth Corps will be investing their talents and abilities in the future of this national park, of the city and themselves,” Pascrell said. “Part of their job will be to help maintain the historic area. But they will also become ambassadors of the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, even while the park is in its planning stages.”
“We are thrilled to be awarded this opportunity to run the Great Falls Youth Corps for 15 Paterson youth,” said Bob Guarasci, president and CEO of the N.J. Community Development Corporation. “Not only is the program designed to be an innovative partnership between the National Park Service and a community-based organization, it is also a creative way to engage youth in the creation of the nation¹s newest national park: the Great Falls National Historical Park.”
“Just as the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930s made great contributions to our nation’s national parks, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar has committed to creating a 21st Century Youth Conservation Corps,” said National Park Service Northeast Regional Director Dennis Reidenbach. “In Paterson, they will develop skills that can lead to a successful career as they work with visitors and the community.”
According to the agreement between the NJCDC and the NPS, to a total of $196,000 will allow for 15 youth participants in the Great Falls Youth Corps and one project director will be hired in the first year. The youth participants will perform duties ranging from improving the park’s appearance, to enhancing the public’s enjoyment of the park, to fostering public knowledge of the National Parks Service’s core mission, and solicit input from the public to be considered as the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park is planned.
Participants will be paid $7.75 hourly for 8-hour work weeks from October through May. Seven youth participants will be hired full time at the same wage during the summer months.
The Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park will cover about 35 acres of the Great Falls Historic District’s 115 acres. The area encompasses America's finest remaining collection of structures representing each stage of industrial progression from Hamilton's time to 20th century.
Accounting for historic features that surround the district, the legislation requires that the Interior Department conduct a study regarding the preservation and interpretation of Hinchliffe Stadium. The study will consider listing the stadium as a National Historic Landmark and consider options for maintaining the stadium’s historic integrity and how to best present to the public what Hinchliffe's history represents.
Rep. Pascrell brought the Great Falls National Park initiative to Congress in 2001 when the House approved legislation that directed the Secretary of the Interior Department to determine whether the Great Falls Historic District should become part of the National Park System. The NPS study which was completed in 2006 noted the exceptional natural, cultural and historic significance of the Great Falls National Historic District, prompting Congress to begin advancing the Great Falls National Historical Park Act.
The National Park System includes 391 diverse units administered by the National Park Service (NPS) of the Department of the Interior. As of December 31, 2007, the National Park System encompassed 84.3 million acres of land.
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