Kian Ahmadi photos
Annemarie Rivera-Berrios stands by the playscape with her rake and shovel
Chris Ozyck and Mike Simons add new mulch to the playground
It took just under half an hour for AnneMarie Rivera-Berrios and a small group of friends to level the mound of mulch that had been sitting by the swing sets at Peat Meadow Park for three months — to make sure that kids have a softer ground to land on the next time they come out to enjoy the Annex public playground.
Rivera-Berrios, a former Republican candidate for Annex alder and the current chair of New Haven’s Civilian Review Board, led that park cleaning effort on Wednesday alongside a small group of fellow city Republicans, Annex neighbors, and parks allies.
She said city workers brought the mulch pile there but never followed through on distributing the material across the playground. Rivera-Berrios showed up with rakes, shovels, and hoes from her garage and she and fellow volunteer parks friends spread it across the swing area.
Afterwards, her husband Joshua Berrios pointed out that the mulch still wasn’t packed down enough and predicted that children would kick it up into a divot beneath each swing.
He described his participation in Wednesday’s mulch-spreading as just “doing work that needs to be done.” He said if nobody had shown up to his wife’s park clean-up event on Wednesday, he would’ve grabbed a shovel and done it all on his own.
“For my kid” he said as he wiped the sweat from his brow. Berrios pointed to their three-year-old son Joshua running around the playground in his bright blue glasses.
Rivera-Berrios brought Joshua over to the playscape while volunteers wheeled mulch over to the area to cover up exposed concrete and tripping hazards. She said she takes her son to the park to play almost every day, as do many families.
The park is a “hidden gem of New Haven,” she said. Although barely a quarter mile off of the bustling i‑95 highway, the park maintains a feeling of calm and comforting lushness.
Peat Meadow Park.
At one end, a group of young men played basketball on the court while another fired up a portable grill. At the other end of the greenspace, dozens of small children finished up with soccer practice for the day.
Chris Ozyck, an associate director of the Urban Resources Initiative and Fair Haven Heights resident, wheeled more mulch over to cover exposed concrete on the playground. His organization works with community members to create greenspaces across the city by planting trees and flowers and by building bioswales.
Ozyck said if enough people in the community are interested in Peat Meadow Park, it could become an official URI greenspace. Rivera-Berrios, who has advocated for improvements in the park for years, said she’s appreciative of Ozyck’s efforts.
She stood close behind her son as he climbed up a set of stairs to an upper level of the playscape. He slipped on a rusted corner of one of the platforms and bumped his head on it. Joshua sobbed as his mother lifted him into her arms to soothe him. She pointed out that the decades-old playscape hasn’t been renovated in years.
The worn out corner of the steps where young Joshua slipped.
Al Paolilo, a Democratic state representative whose district includes Peat Meadow Park, said $500,000 in state aid was approved this legislative session to go toward renovating the park. Paolillo showed up to help move mulch. He too called the park a “jewel” and said the community deserves improvements to it.
While the implementation of the funds has yet to begin, Paolilo said he will listen to voices in the community on how to best allocate the money. Rivera-Berrios said she hopes the new funds will reach her beloved park soon, but for now she’s happy to have fixed up the playground and “set a good example” for her 3 year old whom she hopes will do the same when he grows up.
See below for other recent Independent articles about how New Haveners use and enjoy the city’s many public parks.
• Tuesday In The State St. Triangle With David
• Monday In Scantlebury Park With Jermaine