Photo by Stacie Joy
Updated 3/21: The work is now set to start on April 3, according to Community Board 3.
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This past Thursday evening, Community Board 3's Parks, Recreation, Waterfront, & Resiliency Committee received a "Parks Manager Update."
According to the unnamed manager who was not on camera during the virtual meeting, the work is expected to start today — tentatively, anyway. As the manager said: "We're not sure exactly, but that is the date given to us by Capital [Projects]."
According to the manager, the field house and the space behind it — dubbed the Slocum area as it includes the Slocum Memorial Fountain — will be closed during this time, roughly 18 months. In addition, the Tompkins Square mini pool will be out of commission for two consecutive summers, he said.
The Parks Department website lists a September 2024 competition date for the $5.6-million project (PDF here), which will:
• Upgrade existing restrooms to code
• Upgrade Parks and maintenance and operations space
• Add first aid and lifeguard locker room spaces in the building
• Reconstruct interiors
• Clean and partially repoint exterior brick
NOT mentioned during this briefing: temporary restrooms. Parks officials previously said that porta potties were not part of the contract "and cannot be supplied during construction." The city's relief solution was for parkgoers to walk five minutes (one way) to use the restrooms at the McKinley Playground on Fourth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue adjacent to P.S. 63/the Neighborhood School.
However, in an email on Friday, CB3 District Manager Susan Stetzer told us there would be porta potties after all during the reconstruction, though they still needed a delivery date.
During Thursday evening's committee meeting, the manager also said they've added a second shift of four staff members and one supervisor to the district to hit "hot spots" from 1-9:30 p.m. That work will include extra garbage collection in the area that features Tompkins Square Park, Seward Park and Sara D. Roosevelt Park.
You can watch a playback of the meeting on YouTube. The Tompkins update starts at the 4:40 mark and lasts roughly four minutes.
One last item from this report: the pavement reconstruction of the multipurpose courts (seen below) along Avenue A and 10th Street will likely start in June (and not September, as the website states).
The Parks Department will reconstruct the multipurpose courts, adding various amenities, including a two-lane seal-coated walking loop and new asphalt. Other additions: new benches, a kickball court, a high-low fountain that kids and adults can use simultaneously, and three new basketball backstops at the eastern end.
There are concerns — as covered here — among the skate faithful that the work will render the area useless for skateboarders.
12 comments:
Re Skateboarding Field:
Hurray! Those skateboarding ramps will be gone in June. Finally, no day and night banging! We’ll be fighting to to keep them out. Bring back pickeball, basketball, hockey, baseball, tennis…anything but the ramps!!! Basta!
6:51 - have to agree. the baseball field should be returned as a baseball field. a skate area should be built at East River Park, where others don’t have to endure the endless noise of the skateboards. if only we had an East River Park. thanks Carlina!
Pickleball? You must be joking. Read about the pickleball wars in the West Village. This is the last thing we need. Keep the skateboarders. They won't be able to have all the ramps anyway with the walking track.
That was a turf war over playground space. Those of us living on 10th street are concerned with the skateboarding noise made by the ramps.
Will this reconstruction include installing actual green grass in the main field of Tompkins? Inquiring minds want to know.
Here's hoping they re-pave the potholed, uneven and dangerous to walk on through path from 9th and A to B, I think the last time that thing got a fresh coat of asphalt Fiorello LaGuardia was the mayor.
At 9:30 AM, Anonymous quoth: "Will this reconstruction include installing actual green grass in the main field of Tompkins? Inquiring minds want to know.
Considering how many dog owners prefer to take their dogs on the lawns to void, this grass won't be green for long, unless it's more of the artificial turf.
The restrooms on 4th and are never open, and I don't think people that hangout in the park are going that far.
@Scuba Diva: That would be interesting to turf that area of the park. It would be better than mud
Yes. The lawn will be reseeded starting some time after April 1st once there is no threat of frost
I believe manager said they would wait until after Dance Parade in June to replace 9th street transverse
This is the busiest park per sq ft in NYC. The only way to make it look nice is to give locals keys like Gramercy.
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