§410lll Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, New Jersey

Summary

Creates the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park in Paterson, New Jersey once the Secretary of the Interior finds either enough land has been acquired to form a workable park or the State or City agrees to donate the Great Falls State Park (or part of it), and the Secretary has a written agreement with the State or City to manage public land in the Historic District in ways that fit the park. The park’s job is to protect and explain the area’s historic, cultural, and natural resources. The park covers places shown on the official boundary map dated May 2008, such as the upper, middle, and lower raceways; Mary Ellen Kramer (Great Falls) Park; parts of Upper Raceway Park including the Ivanhoe Wheelhouse and Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures Gatehouse; Overlook Park and nearby hydroelectric and administration buildings; the Allied Textile Printing site and several mill ruins; the Rogers Locomotive erecting shop and Paterson Museum; and the Great Falls Visitor Center. About 6 acres that include Hinchliffe Stadium are added as shown on a boundary modification map dated August 2015 and will be managed under the Hinchliffe Stadium Heritage Act. These maps will be kept on file and the Secretary must publish an official boundary and notice within 60 days after the required agreements and land conditions are met. The Secretary will run the park under National Park Service law, but state and local governments keep their normal civil and criminal powers on non-federal land inside the park. The Secretary may make cooperative agreements with property owners for preservation, public access, and interpretation, may provide funds that must be matched 1-to-1 with nonfederal money, and can require repayment if a project is used against the park’s purposes. The Secretary can acquire land by donation, purchase from willing sellers, or exchange, but cannot buy state or local land except by donation; fee ownership of Hinchliffe Stadium cannot be bought, though a preservation easement may be. A management plan must be completed within 3 fiscal years after funds are provided, made with the advisory commission, and must show how costs will be shared; the plan goes to the Senate and House committees named in the law. An advisory commission of 9 members, appointed by the Secretary with local recommendations, will advise on the plan; members serve 3-year terms and may be reappointed once, serve without pay but get travel expenses, and the commission terminates 10 years after March 30, 2009. The Secretary must also finish a Hinchliffe Stadium preservation study within 3 fiscal years after funding, including whether it could become a National Historic Landmark and how to keep its historic character. Funds as needed are authorized.