The red timbers are the first thing you see from the Great Lawn. The Walsh Family Bridge opened to the public in October 2025 and now crosses the Saddle River at Rindlaub Park. It leads into a wetland section that, as NorthJersey.com reported, had been "previously isolated" until the $2.2 million bridge reached it. According to the borough's dedication announcement, Wandell School children were the first to cross, as "future stewards" of the borough.

A year later, the bridge looks finished, but the park around it is still being built. The council records from 2026 show a rubber path that was nearly done in July and a second path extension under contract. They also show a putting green awarded in August and a partial payment on a 16-foot sculpture commissioned for the wetlands. Each of these pieces goes back to a pedestrian plan the borough adopted almost two decades ago. Seen that way, the bridge is one segment in the middle of a longer project.

The loop on paper

In 2008, Saddle River adopted the Saddle River Crossing Plan as part of its Master Plan. The plan dealt with the hamlet center along East Allendale Road. The 2010 Master Plan describes that area as "three disparate blocks," split by the river and by a busy arterial road. Its answer was a "mini-trail system" to stitch the blocks together.

The plan described the route this way.

"The trail would follow along the south side of the Saddle River from the northern section of the Barnstable Court block, cross East Allendale Road at the intersection with West Saddle River Road, skirting the edge of 66 East Allendale Road... traversing additional Borough-owned land surrounding the Water Gardens garden center before heading eastward through Rindlaub Park to connect with Borough Hall."

From Borough Hall, the plan's loop crosses East Allendale Road to the sidewalks in front of Wandell School. It then heads west past the Colonial Shopping Center and ends back at Barnstable Court. In the plan, Rindlaub Park sits at the center of that loop, between the river and the civic buildings. The rest of the loop does not yet exist as a continuous walking route. Inside the park, though, the borough has been building it piece by piece.

Why it arrives in pieces

The pace comes down to how the money works. Saddle River has paid for its Rindlaub path work largely through matching grants from the Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund. These grants are awarded in fixed amounts, one funding round at a time.

The latest one is typical. In August 2026, the council authorized execution of a county contract for a $90,000 grant from the county's 2025 funding round for "Rindlaub Park: Extension of Multi-Purpose Path," at the rear of 100 East Allendale Road. The grant pays out as a reimbursement after the work is done. It covers 50 percent of eligible construction costs, up to the award amount, and the borough has until about November 12, 2027 to use it. An earlier round worked the same way. In February 2024, the council accepted an $89,780 county grant for "Rindlaub Park: Phase 2, Extension and Expansion of Multi-Purpose Path."

A capped grant tends to produce a path that grows by one segment per funding round, and that is what the park has had. The bridge got started the same way. The borough credits a county Open Space matching grant along with the Walsh family's gift, and says the project pushed through "pandemic delays, rising costs, and material shortages." In 2023, NorthJersey.com put the bridge at $1.45 million. At that point the western section could be reached only through neighboring Waterford Gardens.

Where each piece stands this fall

At the July 20, 2026 council meeting, the borough engineer reported that the path at 153 East Saddle River Road was nearly done. He said the rubberized surface "connects Rindlaub Park to new extension of path system." Each new segment is meant to connect to the last one.

When the February contract came up for a vote, a council member asked what the work would involve. The borough attorney answered that it "is an extension of the existing path." The bid notice describes a multi-purpose rubber path, plus clearing, tree and stump removal, and landscaping.

How a putting green got into a path project

The roughly 1,000-square-foot artificial putting green came out of the same grant limits. The bid for "Rindlaub Park Improvements and Putting Green" also called for landscaping with trees and gardens. The July 20 minutes explain the setup. The putting green was bid as an alternate because "grant funding is a finite amount which should not be exceeded." The bids then "came in lower than expected."

That is the order in which it happened. The core work had to fit inside the grant first. Once the prices came in low enough to leave room, the borough could add the green. On August 17, 2026, the council awarded the contract to Downes Tree Services of Hawthorne for $108,285: a $58,000 base bid plus three alternates. The engineer's report from the same month lists benches, landscaping and a putting green among the planned amenities. On September 14, the engineer said a preconstruction meeting would be held "to discuss project timeline." No start date has been posted since.

The sculpture planned for the wetlands

The western section is meant to hold more than trails. When the borough dedicated the bridge, it described a "developing statuary and ecological park." Plans call for works by sculptor Carolyn Palmer, future sculptures from the Walsh family and student art from Wandell Elementary. The borough also named the Bergen County Audubon Society as a partner.

In November 2025, Palmer's own portfolio listed a 16-foot "Mother Nature" for Rindlaub Park, marked "Clay in Progress." The borough's December 15, 2025 bills list includes a $125,000 payment labeled "PYMNT #2 MOTHER NATURE STATUE @ RNDLB PRK." The location has drawn public comment. According to the May 18, 2026 council minutes, a member of the public argued that a 20-foot bronze statue does not belong in the wetlands and suggested placing it on the east side of the bridge. The minutes record no decision on placement.

Walking it in November

On the ground, the park you can visit today has two halves joined by the bridge. A caption in NorthJersey.com's photo gallery says the 11-acre western section "almost doubles the size" of Rindlaub Park. The park lies south of East Allendale Road between West and East Saddle River roads. The borough's own release calls the newly reachable land 10 acres of wetlands kept for passive recreation. The eastern half is the park the borough created in the early 1960s on 23 acres behind Borough Hall. It holds Fields A, B and C, the football and soccer fields, the shelter and field house, the Great Lawn and bandshell, and the tennis courts.

A few rules from the borough's parks page matter most on a fall walk:

• Dogs may not run at large or disturb wildlife. The borough notes additional restrictions at the Tricker Pond Annex and at the pedestrian bridge.
• Feeding or disturbing wildlife and removing vegetation are prohibited.
• Vehicles must park in designated areas. The park-road speed limit is 10 mph, and vehicle access is restricted between dusk and dawn.
• A red flag means the fields are closed.

The early sunsets after Daylight Saving Time ends are worth planning around, given the dusk vehicle rule. Anyone following the putting green or the path extension can watch two meetings in November. The Parks & Recreation Commission meets November 11, and the Mayor and Council meet November 16 at 7 p.m. The next construction schedule is most likely to show up in the engineer's report at those meetings.

If you are weighing a property near the hamlet center, or a project that runs into the borough's land-use rules, Sheryl Epstein-Romano brings decades of local experience, including 11 years of municipal zoning service in neighboring Upper Saddle River. Request a confidential consultation.