By Barbara Morris
The Queens Coalition for Parks and Green Spaces and representatives from Partnership for Parks, met with Marie Granato, president of Friends of Brookville Park, and other members in Springfield Park on a recent cool evening. The organization has been formulating plans to improve Brookville Park and would like to invite interested folks to become an important part of their various proposed activities.Now that schools will soon be on summer holiday, this would be a great opportunity for students, parents, teachers, principals and lots of others to enjoy a bit of constructive exercise and fun in the great outdoors. Those interested in learning more, please call Marie at 917-374-6081.Every time I look at Brookville Park, I appreciate its beauty, the placid water providing a venue for graceful waterfowl, who sometimes seek nesting refuge in the clumps of reeds, the cooling trees and green grass, dotted here and there in spring with violets, buttercups and clover. The little wooden bridge teases us into staring down at the brook, wondering if we will see some tiny fish or frog swimming by.It is still a little piece of country that some of us remember from our childhood and a little piece of mystery and magic for youngsters who are learning about the natural world as opposed to our sometimes too concrete surroundings. Initially, through our eyes, it looks great. However, we have learned that our parks are now given report cards.At least once a month during summer months, there will be a team of people grading our park. They will look for things that are good and things that are not the way they should be. Some of the points that are judged are: Is the park attended well? Are visitors orderly and respectful of the park rules and of each other? Is signage appropriate and sufficient? Are play and sports areas safe, in good repair and well-used? Are walks and lights in good repair? Are bridges and benches painted and in good repair? Are trees, bushes, and flowers properly maintained? Are rest rooms open, clean, and working properly? Are drinking fountains working, and in good repair?There are still more topics on which each park is to be judged. So you see, since Brookville Park has only one Parks employee to take care of the entire park, if we are to get good grades for our dear park, it would be a great help if lots of interested volunteers would be willing to take some part in the project and other users would be (at least) cooperative.Members of Queens coalition recently participated with New Yorkers for Parks in grading Maria Hernandez Park, often frequented by folks from Ridgewood. We were told the park was named in honor of a nice lady who lived across the street from the entrance to the park and was shot while she was in her home, by a stray bullet fired from a street fight. The park was almost completely refurbished three years ago and at first glance looked as if it would get almost perfect scores. Sadly, it did not.The rest rooms were working, but dirty. Some people insisted on feeding pigeons and that also attracted rats, which resulted in poison being left around. Although many beautiful young trees had recently been planted at high expense, vandals had already broken one off, leaving a stump about fourinches high, which could cause someone to trip and fall. Another had two branches broken off, ruining the shape of the tree. Just as we were being asked if there was any evidence of drugs, a very strong smell of pot wafted by. Those are just some of the things that can get a park bad grades when the Department of Parks and Recreation has spent a lot of money and hard work trying to provide the best for a community they serve.Park work is fun and necessary. I'm happy to report that all members of the Queens coalition who recently completed the Trees New York Pruning Course passed with flying colors, celebrated and received our caps at The Arsenal in Central Park. Let's all get together in Brookville Park soon.
