Essex Park is a municipal park in Montclair

Montclair, New Jersey

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 38,977 people, 15,020 households, and 9,687 families residing in the township. The population density was 6,183.6 people per square mile . There were 15,531 housing units at an average density of 2,464.0 per square mile...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

.

Facilities

Essex park is not much open space and is mostly occupied by sports and recreational facilities. These facilities are used often by the Montclair High School's gym classes and athletic teams and are closed to the public at some times. It has:

• a Swimming pool
  Swimming pool
  A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
  
  
• a soccer field
  Association football pitch
  An association football pitch is the playing surface for the game of association football made of turf. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play".All line markings on the pitch form part of the area which they define...
  
   made of artificial turf
  Artificial turf
  Artificial turf is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well...
  
  
• a quarter mile running track
  Tartan track
  Tartan Track is the trademarked all-weather synthetic track surfacing made of polyurethane which is used for track and field competitions. It lets athletes compete in bad weather without serious performance loss and improves their results over other surfaces...
  
  
• an ice skating rink
• a football
  American football
  American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
  
   field made of artificial turf
  Artificial turf
  Artificial turf is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well...
  
  
• three baseball field
  Baseball field
  A baseball field, also called a ball field or a baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The terms "baseball field" and "ball field" are also often used as synonyms for ballpark.-Specifications:...
  
  s
• a field house with locker rooms and bathrooms, et.c.
• a playground
• bleacher seating
• footpaths/bikeways
• benches and tables
• a small sledding
  Sledding
  Sledding , sledging , sleding or tobogganing is a common activity in wintry areas, similar to sliding, but in a prone or seated position requiring a device or vehicle generically known in the US as a sled or in other countries as a sledge or toboggan...
  
   hill
• open field space

Location

Essex Park is in central Montclair. It is bordered on the west side by New Jersey Transit

New Jersey Transit

The New Jersey Transit Corporation is a statewide public transportation system serving the United States state of New Jersey, and New York, Orange, and Rockland counties in New York State...

's Montclair-Boonton Line

Montclair-Boonton Line

The Montclair-Boonton Line is a commuter rail line of New Jersey Transit Rail Operations. It is part of the Hoboken Division. The line is a consolidation of three individual lines: the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's Montclair Branch, which ran from Hoboken Terminal to Bay Street,...

, on the north by Champlain Terrace, on the East By Essex Street, and comes to a point in the south next to the Walnut Street

Walnut Street (NJT station)

Walnut Street is a New Jersey Transit station on Walnut Street at Depot Square in Montclair, New Jersey along the Montclair-Boonton Line. This is the most used station on the Montclair-Boonton Line....

 Railway Station. Going through it is Chestnut Street, separating the Pool, playground, and skating rink from the rest of the park.

Parking Issues

For football games, spectators would park along Essex Street, often breaking laws by blocking corners, driveways, fire hydrants, even streets. At one point a fire truck was parked in front of a driveway and was asked to move, which it did, to a 'no parking' sign. This was protested by local residents and a decision by the Montclair Town Council banned parking on parks of Essex Street. For the Ice rink and pool, signs direct motorists to a parking lot which connects to a parking lot of the Walnut Street

Walnut Street (NJT station)

Walnut Street is a New Jersey Transit station on Walnut Street at Depot Square in Montclair, New Jersey along the Montclair-Boonton Line. This is the most used station on the Montclair-Boonton Line....

 Railway Station.

Ice Rink Privatization

In 2008, the township of Montclair was looking for ways to lower its budget and as part of a series of budget cuts and cancellations decided that the ice rink at Essex Park, the Clary Anderson

Clary Anderson

-External links:*...

Arena, should be privatized. Montclair residents worried that entry fees might increase and that the quality of service would go down, and the township decided to retain authority in some way over the rink while having it operated privately.

The operation of the arena was taken over by a company called United Skates of America in September 2008