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Health & Fitness

The Road to Nowhere

All that remains is a street sign.

I took a walk this Christmas day in the cold sunshine for the exercise and cure the restlessness that comes when a workweek routine is disrupted. I took myself into the nearby Central Park of Morris County, which I continue to refer as Greystone.

I have walked here many times before, and with the snow finally gone I could stroll on the cross-country path, along the small brook and then up the hill to the administration building that has been the center of controversy over its survival involving the state of New Jersey, Morris County, Parsippany-Troy Hills Township, several legislators and the private group Preserve Greystone.

I walked along the short Abell Road to get to the building’s front door, at the end of Central Ave. Abell was the name of one of the larger buildings where the old mental hospital’s patients were housed.

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The building is long gone, just the road remains. However, on the other side of Central Ave. there is even less of a reminder of Greystone's past.

The only thing left of what used to be the Curry building are the two cedars that stood on either side of the driveway and a street sign showing the road to nowhere. The driveway and the woods where I once trespassed and found a remarkable assortment of birds in the trees is now athletic fields.

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I watched those trees come down, the fences go up and the fields created. The broken sidewalk along that side of Central Ave. has been tarred and smoothed. I expect at some time the old Curry Pl. sign will come down, leaving the two cedars.

I have mixed feelings about all this work at Greystone. On the one hand, I am glad the hulking, empty stone buildings came down. I am glad the old hospital is now a “nonprofit mall” and part is used by St. Clare’s.

On the other, I don’t like this battle over what to do with the rest of the property still held by the state. After six plans were submitted, the issue went on hold. Two state senators are pushing a bill that forces the state to hand the land over to Morris County for “passive recreation.” I consider that to be walking but I doubt in this congested part of New Jersey the land will be left for that purpose.

And Parsippany wants its say. Does it want to allow yet more houses, like the monstrosities along Old Dover Road or the “scar on the mountain” condo you can see for miles around? Or more ballfields?

I don’t know what the Morris County Freeholders decided in their discussion on the legislation and Parsippany's reaction at their last meeting on Monday, or what is going to happen to the rest of the Greystone land. 

All I know is, I looked at the sign for a road to nowhere and thought, how appropriate.


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