EDGEWATER/CLIFFSIDE PARK - Many in Edgewater consider October 25, 1996 as a day that will live in infamy: the day Cliffside Park closed Oxen Hill Road. But in what might be referred to as “A Tale of Two Towns”, it appears that the long-standing feud between Edgewater and Cliffside Park over Oxen Hill may finally be at an end.

Oxen Hill Road is open once again. But what, if anything, Cliffside Park may do next remains to be seen.

On February 3, 2000, Superior Court Judge Jonathan Harris ordered Cliffside Park to remove the barricades that sat at the top of the hill and to permit unobstructed access to the road by today, February 22. As of approximately 2:30 p.m. this afternoon, the road was open to traffic.

Oxen Hill Road is one of only a handful of roads in and out of Edgewater, along with River Road (heading north and south) and Route 5 (east-west). In October of 1996, Cliffside Park first closed the road, prompting Edgewater to file suit and to retain the law firm of DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick, and Gluck of Teaneck. Edgewater also employed additional heavy artillery by hiring high-powered lobbyist Hazel Gluck as a consultant. Gluck was Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Transportation during Governor Thomas Kean’s administration.

At the time of the closing, Cliffside Park claimed that the road was too dangerous for vehicles to traverse because of a 90-year-old retaining wall that was near collapse. It was estimated that as many as 4,000 cars per day were using Oxen Hill.

In April of 1998, Judge Harris ordered Cliffside Park to do the necessary repairs to reopen Oxen Hill Road by November 1 of that year. More legal wrangling, including Cliffside Park’s unsuccessful application to the DOT to permanently close the road, resulted in a further extension. In November of 1998, Judge Harris appointed a mediator to ensure that Cliffside Park took all necessary steps to make the repairs and reopen the road.

Cliffside Park finished constructing a new retaining wall last August. However, the town did not reopen the road until Edgewater again requested relief from the court, including sanctions against Cliffside Park. The road finally reopened last October after being closed for almost three years, but only temporarily. Within a week of last year’s November 2 elections, Cliffside Park closed the road once more. This time, the town asserted that the road was unsafe because of a cracked culvert which carried a gas pipe.

According to Edgewater’s attorney, Andrew Bayer, Esq., Edgewater then filed a new complaint and an order to show cause, which was heard by the court on December 17. Judge Harris scheduled a summary proceeding for February 1 and 2, essentially a “mini-trial” on the issue of why Cliffside Park closed the road again. Bayer states that after hearing from the two towns’ respective engineers, Judge Harris disregarded the testimony of Cliffside Park’s expert witness, Christopher Nash of borough engineer Stephen Boswell’s office, as being “net opinion” that was unsupported by the evidence. Chris Diktas, Esq., attorney for Cliffside Park, was unavailable for comment on the proceedings.

As for what, if anything, may happen next, both sides are still awaiting a decision from the Superior Court Appellate Division on the denial of Cliffside Park’s application to the DOT.

2/22/00