Aging Dudley Park In Bayville Due For An Upgrade This Summer

William J. Dudley Park in Berkeley Township has been around for a long time. It looks it.

But that will soon change, when Berkeley begins making improvements to the aging park nestled in the pines and cedars off Route 9 in Bayville.

"Dudley is one of our oldest parks and it was a tired park," Township Councilman Angelo Guadagno said. "We decided it needed to have some upgrades to it."

The new additions will include two beach volleyball courts, a bocce court, basketball court and new playground equipment, he said.

"The new additions to Dudley will improve the park and give residents more to do there," he said "Residents who grew up in Bayville really love that park and remember a time in their life when they went there as a child and swam in the creek. The updates will attract residents back to Dudley Park."

The roller hockey rink was unusable even before Superstorm Sandy, but it was beyond repair after the storm.

"Besides, the league was nonexistent for a few years," Guadagno said. "We do have a shared service with Lacey for any of our kids that want to play roller hockey. If the time comes and the number is high enough for another league, we have approval to put a new rink in at Eastern."

But because of the nearby creek and the chance of flooding again, the rink will never be rebuilt at Dudley, he said.

Mayor Carmen F. Amato Jr. and Guadagno announced recently that the township plans to build a new $266,500 state-of-the-art facility to be replace the one that was dismantled, in nearby Veterans Park.

Image: Courtesy of Berkeley Township