Freeholder Board to Meet in Riverdale on October 7
Published on September 24, 2019
Local and Area Residents are Invited to Attend
The Morris County Board of Freeholders, as part of a continuing tradition of holding county government road meetings'' in towns across the county, will meet at the municipal building in Riverdale, at 91 Newark-Pompton Turnpike, on Monday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m.
The gathering in Riverdale is the last of seven county governing board meetings being held outside of the county seat in Morristown in 2019 as part of an effort to bring county government closer to constituents.
The freeholders met in Chester Township on April 10, Florham Park on May 6, Mendham Township on June 12, Wharton in July 10, Washington Township on Aug. 14, and Montville on Sept. 11.
The Freeholder Board has enjoyed traveling across the county to meet local officials and residents, hopefully making it easier for them to access county government and raise issues of importance without having to travel to the county seat in Morristown,'' said Freeholder Director Doug Cabana.
The freeholders last year met in Butler, Jefferson, Madison, Mine Hill, Mount Olive, Mountain Lakes and Roxbury.
The freeholders meet twice monthly, usually on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, at the County Administration and Records Building in Morristown. The public can comment at those meetings.
The board also usually holds public work sessions on the mornings or afternoons of the second and fourth Wednesday. The Oct. 7 meeting has been moved to a Monday due to the Yom Kippur holiday, which falls on Wednesday, Oct. 9.
For a schedule of specific meeting dates, locations and times, and to view Freeholder Board meeting agendas, visit: https://morriscountynj.gov/freeholders/publicmeetings-about/
For more information on county government, visit: www.morriscountynj.gov
Historic Post house in Riverdale
Riverdale Borough was incorporated as a municipality by the state Legislature on April 17, 1923 following a public referendum. It was created from a section of Pequannock Township.
The area where Riverdale is located, at the Passaic County border, was settled by Dutch immigrants from Bergen and Paulus Hook (Jersey City) in the mid-1700s after the land was purchased from the Pompton Tribe of the Leni-Lenape nation in 1695 by Dutchmen Aaron Schuyler, Nicholas Bayard and Anthony Brockholst.
During the American Revolution, the mountain north of Hamburg Turnpike -- Federal Hill -- was a lookout for General George Washington's Army, and Washington quartered at Schuyler House in Riverdale in 1777.
In the 1940s, the original Otis Slater House was a restaurant/guest house that catered to celebrities, including Babe Ruth, who donated baseball uniforms to the Riverdale School.
Among local landmarks were the Half-House, which was truncated to straighten out a dangerous bend in a local road, and the Mad Dog Bite House, where Camille DeBow would dispense a medication of her own making that effectively counteracted hydrophobia.
To learn more about Riverdale, visit https://www.riverdalenj.gov/about-us/pages/history-borough-riverdale or https://www.riverdalenj.gov/fire-department/pages/department-history