A New Haven conservancy group would like to see more neighborhood involvement in the care of city parks.
Cordalie Benoit (pictured), president of the Elm City Parks Conservancy (ECPC), stopped by the monthly meeting of the Board of Parks Commissioners Wednesday evening to speak on behalf of her organization, a non-profit group that works to preserve the city’s parks and to increase public awareness and participation in the park system. Benoit stressed the need for more “friends of the park” groups to take an interest in the upkeep of their neighborhood parks and said that she has been “frustrated and disappointed” by the lack of input from citizens.
Asked by Commissioner Kevin Walton to explain the role of a “friends of the park” group, Benoit explained such groups can get involved in efforts to increase public use of their neighborhood park, organize events in the park, and help with long-term plans for the future of their park. She added that her own neighborhood group has planted trees in Wooster Square park.
Benoit cited Friends of Edgewood Park, a volunteer committee of Edgewood Park neighbors, as an example of the kind of group that she would like to see neighbors form. “Edgewood Park has really started to shine in recent years,” she said, crediting Friends for their efforts to monitor the condition of the park and to increase park usage and awareness.
While she was encouraged by the success of Edgewood, Benoit explained that many of the parks do not have such active neighbors. “East Rock has no participation,” she explained. “It’s the biggest park in New Haven and the most used park in New Haven, but it has no active friends group.”
Michael Tucker, newly elected treasurer of the Board of Parks Commissioners, recalled that when he was a child, “there used to be a very active group in East Rock. They used to distribute bird seed.” Tucker said that the park looked great for a while and then people grew complacent and stopped taking care of it.
Benoit said that many citizens simply don’t understand that there is a place for their involvement. “It’s not that people aren’t interested, it’s that they don’t see it as a need.” She said that she hopes that the ECPC can help to facilitate communication between New Haven park-goers and the Board of Parks Commissioners. “Parks is one of the few city departments that is directly to serve people,” Benoit said, “It’s best if you know what they want.”
Tucker thanked Benoit for her efforts, saying, “I encourage you to keep slogging away.”
109 years of Parks History
The board also heard from Illisa Kelman (pictured), a parks department employee who has been laying the groundwork for a project to collect and preserve the documents and images that make up the storied history of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Trees. Kelman said that historical materials include handwritten minutes from parks commissioners meetings that go back to 1899, as well as old maps, photographs and drawings relating to the parks department, and even the original deeds to all the city’s park land. These historical treasures are currently stored in boxes in various locations, where Kelman reported that they are “crumbling.”
The proposed effort at collection and preservation, which was conceived by parks Director Bob Levine, aims to archive and protect all existing Parks Department historical materials and then to digitize them and make them available to the public. Levine said that he’d like to create a website that has a searchable database of parks records, “so you could punch in, say, ‘Edgewood Park’ and come up with the minutes of all meetings that mention Edgewood.” Levine also mentioned the possibility of creating a coffee table book from old documents and images of New Haven’s parks in days of yore.
A historical archive could be also be a useful guide for the creation of current parks policy, said Kelman, “Big decisions are often most wisely made when you can consult the history of that decision.”
Kelman is still researching the extent of the Parks Departments historical holdings and looking into sources of funding for the completion of the project.
Watch for Flying Arrows
In addition to discussing old maps, the commission also touched on the subject of new maps. Martin Torresquintero (pictured), the department’s outdoor adventure coordinator, reported that new GPS-verified maps are being created of all of New Haven’s parks. The maps, which will be available on the Parks website in a few months, will be more accurate and colorful than the current maps. Torresquintero said that creating maps by GPS has surprised parks staff with the revelation that some of the maps that they’ve been using for 80 years are inaccurate.
Torresquintero also reported to the commission about various recreation initiatives currently underway, including new metal signs for all park trailheads, a new cellphone hotline for obstructions on park trails, and the parks department’s Vacation Camp, which has been running recreation programs for schoolchildren during the current winter school vacation.
Parks Deputy Director Bill Dixon (pictured at right with Bob Levine) reported to the commission on preparations of the city’s parks for this year’s summer camps. He said that there will be camps in eleven sites across the city, including some new locations this year. He also said that all five city pools will be open this summer, which has not been the case in the last two years. Summer camps begin on the last Monday in June.
Dixon spoke at length about the city’s tennis program, which he said has been taken to “another level.” “We’re probably one of the largest inner city tennis programs in New England,” he said. He explained that New Haven has received a lot support from the United States Tennis Association, “the USTA has been pumping money in.” A proliferation of racquet donations now means that for children who participate in a city tennis program, “every kid walks away with their own racquet.” New Haven tennis program achievements also include the hiring of high school tennis athletes to be tennis instructors this summer.
A new parks activity this summer will be an archery programs for kids. Dixon said that the city received a grant to buy bows, arrows, and targets, and that staff are going to receive training in archery. “That should be dangerous,” he said, smiling.