Laura Glesby photo
The view from the soon-to-be-replaced Mid Bridge.
City Engineer Giovanni Zinn at Tuesday’s Zoom meeting.
A dance venue. A community garden. A set of lights for the skate park. A … West Rock-bound gondola?
Those were a few of the ideas that made it onto a community-built wish list for $800,000 worth of improvements for Edgewood Park, as put together by roughly 100 parkgoers.
Those 100 park enthusiasts gathered on Zoom on Tuesday for a presentation and discussion on impending improvements to the Edgewood greenspace oasis. The meeting was led by City Engineer Giovanni Zinn.
As Zinn explained on Tuesday, the state has allocated $800,000 of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding toward capital improvements for Edgewood Park.
Zinn said his department expects to spend about $200,000 of that money on replacing the “Mid Bridge,” a footbridge named for its location in the middle of the park, just off the paved pedestrian path.
The Mid Bridge has experienced corrosion and loss of deck material, Zinn explained: it has “really reached the end of useful life,” he said. “It’s not at the point where we need to close it for safety reasons, but we’re getting there.”
The rest of the funding is available for other, to-be-determined uses. Tuesday’s public meeting aimed to solicit community input on what those uses should be.
State Rep. Pat Dillon, who advocated for the park improvement funding, called on attendees to consider not only the interior of the park, but also “safe access to the park” — including potential crosswalk and sidewalk repairs to be made.
Zinn encouraged the parkgoers to think about large-scale, creative projects alongside the minute fixes that need to get done.
The meeting’s 100 participants ranged from skate park regulars to birdwatchers, cyclists to parents of playground devotees.
For 20 minutes, the Zoom meeting divided into “breakout rooms,” where city staff recorded ideas from smaller-group discussions.
In Breakout Room 8, participants immediately riffed off of a rather ambitious idea that Parking Authority Executive Director Doug Hausladen had submitted earlier in the Zoom chat feature: a gondola traveling back and forth from West Rock.
“I have to say…” said Westville’s Janis Underwood. “I think that would be an incredible event.”
Hausladen had more ideas to share in the Breakout Room: “Sand volleyball, of course. And I would love an area that can turn into an ice skating park in the winter.”
“When you go to the park, what do you like to do?” Zinn asked the group
“I like to birdwatch,” Underwood said. “Just take in the scene and the peace and quiet. Just kind of forest bathing.”
She noted that parts of the park, including the stairs, can be slippery after it rains. Flood control measures, including the possible use of native ecology, emerged as a theme throughout the discussion.
Along a trail leading to the Mid Bridge, a sign reads, "Caution: Slippery when wet or icy."
Scheri Walker likes to spend time in the park so she can dance. “I have used the pavilion for line dancing, and there have been times when we just wanted to be outside and we would often hog the parking lot area, for lack of any other alternative of where we could go,” she said.
In her “dream world,” she said, she envisioned a designated dancing area in the park — floored with a material that “isn’t hard on your knees, like the concrete.”
Dana Greenridge said that Edgewood Park has been a source of joy for her and her four-year-old during the pandemic. “Those ducks at the duck pond got us through,” she said.
Janis Underwood.
“We spend a good amount of time at the skate park. It’s been a real community for us,” Greenridge added, echoing other skaters’ calls for lighting at the skate park, which would allow the park to be used after dark.
Another skater whose Zoom name identified himself as Justin East Rock praised the relatively recent expansion of the skate park. “While the expansion is great, the rest of the park is deteriorating,” he noted. “The pavement is really gritty. It’s tough to skate on, to be honest.”
“I agree with them adding lights to the skate park,” said Torrell Yarbrough, who also typically comes to the park to skate. “We gotta get the gondola, too.”
And, he suggested after a moment, “a zip line from the other end all the way to the skate park.”
“I’ll propose it,” Zinn responded with a laugh. “We’ll see what our lawyers say.”
Soon, all of the participants reconvened, and city staff shared notes from the various breakout conversations.
A recurring theme was the old soccer field, located west of the duck pond, as one potential site for renewal. The field has become so flooded and swamp-like that it’s no longer usable.
Comments frequently touched on maintenance requests: attendees asked again and again for skate park repairs, tree removal, and road re-pavements.
Litter also emerged as a common concern. Participants suggested adding trash receptacles, creating new signage, and increasing the frequency of trash pickup.
City staff rattled off requests for park benches, picnic tables, and electric outlets. They touched on ideas for an amphitheater and a community garden. The latter suggestion sparked a stream of enthusiasm in the Zoom chat.
Whatever happens, Zinn said, the city plans to design the chosen park improvements in the spring and summer of 2023. Construction will likely begin in fall 2023 or early 2024.
