Newark's Hillside Park Earns 2023 Water Resources Award

Hillside Park, Newark's newest public park, earned the Parks and Places Award from the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin (WRADRB). The 2023 Water Resources Awards recognize leadership, innovation and excellence in the science and management of water resources within the Delaware Basin. 

Hillside Park was chosen for exemplifying a resilient, community-based approach to overcoming the challenges of water quality and flooding by improving headwater conditions of Silver Brook, a tributary to the upper Christina River. 

Home of the former University of Delaware Rodney dorms, Hillside Park is now a seven-acre public recreation space that includes a playground, natural playscape, fishing pier, lighted walking trail, pavilions, and other amenities. 

The Newark Parks & Recreation and Public Works & Water Resources Departments will receive the award at the Water Resources Association Awards Gala in Philadelphia on September 21. 

WRADRB is a nonprofit, non-partisan, advocacy and public information organization that promotes the science-based management of water resources within the Delaware River Basin to protect water dependent uses and enhance the long-term sustainability and resiliency of the river system. WRADRB represents the water users and anyone dependent on, or interested in, the Basin’s water resources.