Police Youth Unit Given Buckley Park Fieldhouse

By Donna Mitchell
Herald & News

PATERSON - After years without a facility to call his own, the city´s Police Athletic League will soon move into the unoccupied Buckley Park Fieldhouse.

PAL will lease the Fieldhouse from the city for a dollar a year for 10 years. The small building needs an estimated $22,000 in renovations, and PAL Executive Director Steve Olimpio said that through fund raisers and a grant from the Turrell Fund in Montclair that donates money to non-profit groups benefiting children, he is optimistic that the money will be raised in time to move the league in by June 1.

The move will mark an end to the Paterson group´s vagabond existence, in which it has long been forced to arrange for the use of playing fields across the city and for space at the Public Safety Complex on Broadway to accommodate PAL activities.

One of the first renovations will be to remove the grates over the small windows in the Fieldhouse. "I don´t like this," Olimpio said as he gripped the strong wire. "We don´t want the kids to feel like they´re in jail and we´re going to change the windows so that they can look outside."

Once renovations are complete, there will be a multipurpose room, offices, and two sets of bathrooms for staffers and children. In the summertime, children ages 6 through 12 will have a day camp available. They will participate in specialty sport camp sessions, take craft classes, learn computer literacy, participate in drug-awareness sessions, and take twice-weekly field trips.

Teenagers ages 14 to 17 will be hired to work with the police officers and civilian volunteer staff as camp aides. They will receive Red Cross certification in CPR, first aid, coaching and training.

Night activities will also be available throughout the year, while older children will be able to use the facility for tutoring or to do homework under the supervision of Augustino Feola, a civilian member of the PAL board of directors. Offices will be open 12 hours a day.

Next Saturday, about 50 current PAL participants will clean the park of broken bottles, graffiti and other trash. Through PAL programs, Olimpio also hopes to reinstitute the Explorers Club, a program that puts young teenagers through the experience of police academy training.