ROOSEVELT — After 48 years of weathering the elements, the sculpted head of Franklin D. Roosevelt will be refurbished.

At the June 28 Borough Council meeting, Councilman Tom Curry announced that the memorial, adjacent to Roosevelt Public School, would be repaired this fall.

President Roosevelt commissioned the Work Projects Administration to create the borough as one of 99 New Deal communities established in the 1930s. The town changed its name from Jersey Homesteads to Roosevelt upon the president’s death. Residents financed, designed and constructed the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial Park and Amphitheater. Resident Jonathan Shahn created the bust, which is the site’s focal point.

The memorial park was completed 17 years after the president’s death in honor of the borough’s 25th anniversary in 1961. On June 2, 1962, the president’s widow, Eleanor Roosevelt, attended and spoke at the dedication ceremony.

Since that time, weather exposure has caused the bronze bust and its granite veneer pedestal to deteriorate. The sculpture was also spray-painted several years ago, although the graffiti was removed.

The Fund for Roosevelt, a nonprofit with a mission to preserve and restore objects or areas of natural, social and historic interest within the borough, is spearheading the sculpture’s refurbishment. The project is estimated to cost about $20,000. So far, approximately $2,750 in donations has been raised, according to Curry.

The Fund for Roosevelt plans to repair and weatherize the sculpture’s granite pedestal and restore the bust’s original patina. Aegis Restauro, of Belle Mead, will repair the bust under the direction of Shahn and the Fund for Roosevelt. Curry said work is scheduled for September or October.

Donations toward the preservation effort can be mailed to the Fund for Roosevelt, P.O. Box 404, Roosevelt, NJ 08555-0404.