Patersonians OK Hinchliffe Rehab
Paterson, NJ — Municipal officials and school administrators here are finishing plans to rehabilitate Hinchliffe Stadium since city voters here overwhelmingly approved a $15 million allocation towards the historic midget and stock car venue Nov. 3.
Patersonians voted, 3,433 to 891, for a non-binding referendum whereby the city will pay for Hinchliffe’s revamping with 15- to 20- year bonds. $13.8 million would go to the 77-year-old stadium’s rebuilding for future sports, recreation and entertainment use. Some stadium space will go towards a Paterson Public School district-run sports management academy.
The remaining $1.2 million would be split between the Paterson Armory and nearby Bauerle Field – the latter a gridiron used for high school football games.
Paterson Mayor Jose “Joey” Torres said he would make a bond issue application appointment with the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ Local Finance Board.
Torres added that his administration would ask for design proposals from prospective contractors within 60 days of Nov. 3.
There will also be community forums on the prospective Hinchliffe redesign before both the city council and the school board of education approve a final plan. That plan has to adhere to national and state historic register restoration standards. The council is also drafting lease agreemements for the stadium and armory.
City elders and educators came to a memorandum of understanding Oct. 30, wherebythe former will renew the stadium – and the latter to keep ownership and operations.
Hinchliffe Stadium, a 9,200-seat arena on The Great Falls’ north bank, opened for scholastic and professional sports Sept. 17, 1932. Motorcycles first rode one-quarter-mile cinder oval in 1934-35 but the school district allowed paving for ARDC midgets and stock cars 1939-42 and 1945-51.
The stadium, named for prime backer Mayor John V. Hinchliffe, is one of four surviving venues of baseball’s Negro leagues. The New York Black Yankees called Hinchliffe home for 14 years in the 1930s-40s and the New York Cubans a 15th. It was where native son Larry Doby, who would break the Major League Baseball American League color barrier in 1948, successfully tried out for the Newark Eagles in 1942.
The stadium fell into major disrepair the last 13 years. The Paterson Fire Department responded to 33 arson calls there, mainly fires started by vagrants, last summer into September. The stadium was closed to the public from 1997 until local racers started an annual Hinchliffe Reunion in September 2008.
Hinchliffe’s latest rehabilitation attempt was aided by its recent addition to The Great Falls Historic District – under the National Park Service’s wing.
The Nov. 3 vote, published Nov. 4 with 95 polling districts reporting, remains unofficial until Passaic County Clerk Karen Brown signs a certificate Nov. 17. New Jersey law requires a two week allowance for Brown’s staff to count any mail-in, provisional and absentee balotts. The fortnight also allows the county election board to consider any recounts or challenges of ballots and/or currently impounded voting machines.
Sources: Walter Elliott