Improvements Finished at Hendricks Golf Course

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo was at Hendricks Field Golf Course Thursday to announce the completion of various aesthetic improvements -- and to practice a few drives.

“What we needed desperately was to improve the exterior of the golf course,” DiVincenzo said. “We needed it for the people who live across the street, and who drive by here...This course actually looks like a country club now.”

Over the last several months, chain-link perimeter fencing has been replaced with more decorative fencing, areas choked with vegetation along the outside of the course have been landscaped, and a new wooden sign was installed. One chief aim of the improvements, DiVincenzo said, was to burnish the appearance of the course, which is located in a largely residential neighborhood at the corner of Franklin and Belleville avenues.

DiVincenzo spoke in front of the course’s clubhouse, on a patio that had been refurbished as part of the Hendricks improvements. The large patio can now be used for events, DiVincenzo said.

Shortly afterward, the county executive picked up a driver and knocked a few down the fairway as photographers snapped away.

“This is my first swing of the year,” said DiVincenzo, a Nutley resident who frequents the Hendricks course.

The $852,000 Hendricks project was paid for with a federal Community Development Block Grant and a matching grant from the county’s Open Space Trust Fund. The trust fund is financed with a small county property tax approved by voters a decade ago.

This latest round of Hendricks improvements follows a $7 million plan completed in 2010 to upgrade all three county courses, which include Weequahic in Newark and Francis Byrne in West Orange. Those changes were to the courses themselves -- the holes and greens -- unlike the latest Hendricks improvements, which are chiefly cosmetic.

The previous improvement plan was paid for with money from the county’s capital projects budget, funds which will be repaid with fees from golfers between now and 2020. The fees are “dedicated,” meaning they can’t be used for any other purpose until the $7 million is paid back with interest, said Anthony Puglisi, a county spokesman.

“Over the last three years we renovated three golf courses, and we did it all with user fees,” DiVincenzo said.  

The county has made other changes designed to increase access to the courses, said Jim Christ, the director of golf course operations.

Golfers no longer need go to county offices in Newark to obtain their membership cards, he said. Instead, cards can be obtained at any of the golf courses when they’re open and golfers can hit the links the same day. Golfers can obtain memberships year-round at Hendricks, Christ also said.

A one-year membership for county golf courses costs  $25 for senior citizens and $45 for all others.