All Middlesex County Parks Reopen Saturday

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — Get ready: All Middlesex County parks will reopen to the public at sunrise this Saturday, after a dramatic change of course announced by Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday.

Some towns are taking it even further: Middletown is reopening its tennis courts and sports fields, the first town in Monmouth County to do so. A decision has yet to be made by the National Park Service on whether or when they will be reopening Gateway National Park/Sandy Hook.

All South Brunswick and East Brunswick parks have remained open during the quarantine. Only Edison shut down its town parks after Murphy's orders, and Edison said all town parks will now reopen Saturday, as well.

Murphy first shut down state and county parks on April 7; he said too many people were congregating and it could spread the virus. There was great backlash, mostly from Republican elected officials in New Jersey, but Murphy said Wednesday their pleas did not necessarily convince him to change his mind.

With the exception of the mental health importance of parks, Gov. Murphy said the pressure — from protesters and others — on him to reopen them "did not matter one little bit."

"So with all due respect to all the pressure that's been out there, we couldn't frankly care," Murphy said Wednesday. "We make his call based on data, science and fact."

The coronavirus case curve has been steadily dropping in New Jersey.

"While I firmly believe there was no scientific justification to close parks in the first place, I want to praise the administration for hearing the calls to reopen now," said state Senator Declan O'Scanlon, R, Monmouth. "While there will absolutely be some people who don't adhere to safe practices, the overwhelming majority will."