| Edgemont Park | |
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The Memorial Obelisk seen from across the pond |
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| Type | Public Park |
| Location | Montclair, New Jersey |
| Coordinates | [1] |
| Area | 15.52 acres (62,800 m2) |
| Operated by | Montclair Department of Parks and Recreation |
| Open | All year. |
Edgemont Park is a park in Montclair, New Jersey, in the United States of America. The park has had problems over the past few years with Canadian Geese and their droppings. It shares a name with the nearby Edgemont Elementary School.
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A committee for park construction in 1906 decided to purchase the land for the park with a $100,000 bond issue, following a town referendum. The effort to buy the land was led by William B. Dickson, who backed a quarter of the bonds issued. The land which comprised the park was originally a golf course, built 10 years prior to the park's founding. Edgemont was originally name the Harrison Tract park. The memorial was dedicated in 1925.[2]
The park is surrounded by roads on three sides, and by the rears of residential lots on the remaining southern side. To the north is a street named after the park, Parkway, and to the West, Edgemont Road. Across this road is Edgemont Elementary School. On the East, Valley Road borders the park. In the eastern part of the park there is a pond with fountains, fed and flowing into Toney's Brook. The pond is artificial, created by a dam, and has severe growth of algae and scum. This scum has damaged the health of Toney's Brook Downstream. An accessible children's playground is here.
The most prominent feature of the park is the pond and the small island with the World War I memorial on it. Edgemont park is known for its World War I memorial, which is one of the landmarks of Montclair. The main memorial, created in 1924 by Charles Keck, is a tall obelisk with bronze sculptures of Winged Victory on top and the Billy Boys on the bottom. On the sides of the obelisk are etched the names of those who fell in the First World War, to whom the monument is dedicated. In front of the memorial there are small plaques that have the names of those who died in the Vietnam War and Korean war and World War II .[3]
The park has always had trouble with the many non-migratory Canadian Geese which live in the park, rendering it unpleasant and unusable with their copious excrement. The first plan was to discourage the public from feeding the birds while having a worker go to the pond every once in a while and shoo the geese away. Then it was decided to install devices that annoyed the geese: stuffed foxes, lasers, balloons, loud noises, plywood coyote silhouettes, and fake goose corpses were used. Sabotaging goose eggs was tried. Eventually chemicals were put into the water in an attempt to scare the geese away, had a short effect, and then ceased to work.[5] These measures were also used in Montclair's Yantacaw Brook Park, which had similar problems with geese. Eventually the decision was made in 2007 to round up the geese and electrocute them, after which they were turned into food.[6] despite these controversial measures, there are still geese defecating and attacking people in the park. The non-lethal measures also were a danger to Herons and Egrets that live in the park.
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