Essex County Hendricks Golf Course, Youth Program Get $5M Boost – Yahoo News
BELLEVILLE, NJ — A county-run golf course in Belleville and a community youth golf program are about to get a $5.18 million boost, officials announced Tuesday.
According to Essex County officials, an upcoming project will “modernize playing conditions” at Essex County Hendricks Field Golf Course and create a practice facility for The First Tee program at the Belleville golf course.
Officials stated:
“Mott MacDonald from Iselin was awarded a professional services contract for $241,995 to design the improvements. Turco Golf Inc. from Pompton Lakes was awarded a publicly bid contract for $5,181,978 to perform the construction work. The project is being funded with grants from the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund, the NJ Green Acres program and the NJ Department of Community Affairs.”
The renovations are scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2021.
HENDRICKS FIELD
The improvements planned for Hendricks Field include re-grassing the greens, building or rebuilding several holes, building or rebuilding several bunkers, improving drainage, reducing blind shots and modernizing restroom facilities.
During construction, Hendricks Field will remain open as a nine-hole public golf course. The playing conditions were last upgraded in 2008 when all three Essex County public golf courses were modernized. The entrance patio was modernized in 2011 with new brick pavers, officials said.
FIRST TEE FACILITY
The First Tee practice facility will be constructed in the northern section of the golf course with a new entrance being created off Joralemon Street in Belleville.
The practice facility will have three holes, a hitting range and a 17-car parking lot. Each of the three holes will have synthetic grass surface tee areas to minimize maintenance, officials said.
Essex County started its partnership with The First Tee at Weequahic Park in Newark in 2006. Officials offered the following background about the collaboration:
“Children have been able to learn the game of golf under the tutelage of a nationally recognized youth recreation program. They also benefited from the life skills and leadership development aspects of The First Tee’s unique educational curriculum. This aspect of the program has expanded during the last 14 years to include after school enrichment activities and tutoring programs. The First Tee has introduced golf to thousands of children and, prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, enrolled about 500 youth golfers in its sessions. Alumni of The Frist Tee program at Weequahic have received scholarships to Marymount University in Virginia, St. Thomas University in Miami, Yale University, Johnson and Wales in Maima, Purdue University, Drew University, Stanford University, Methodist in North Carolina, Bethune Cookman University in Florida, Baylor University and Rutgers University.”
“When we established a partnership with The First Tee 14 years ago, the program became instantly popular and now there are more than 500 children who participate at Weequahic Park,” Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. said.
“Because of the incredible interest in the program at Weequahic, we believe expanding the program to Hendricks Field and creating a similar practice facility will help promote the game of golf to another underserved population and enable the participants to benefit from the life skills and leadership development aspects of The First Tee’s unique educational curriculum,” DiVincenzo said.
COVID TESTING
In addition to hosting sporting events, the golf course’s parking lot was recently used as a coronavirus testing location.
DiVincenzo shared a social media post with photos of the event, which took place Tuesday.
Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com
Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Sign up for Patch email newsletters.
This article originally appeared on the Belleville-Nutley Patch