Ice Rink Contract, Scantlebury Sign Approved

One new sign, four temporary security bollards, and a new operator for the skating rink were all voted up.

No vote was taken — yet — on a proposed new policy asserting the right of every neighborhood in town to have a playscape or playground and a water area.

That was the summary of developments at Wednesday night’s monthly meeting of the Board of Parks Commissioners convened over the Zoom teleconferencing app and attended by about 20 people.

What’s The Name Of This Park?

Scantlebury Park advocate Roxanne Condon pointed out that there is no sign of any kind dentifying the park on the east side near the Canal Trail where the increasingly successful and well patronized skate park, inaugurated last year, draws park patrons.

“If we could have some sign between the skate park and the pickle ball [court],” said Condon, ​“that would help publicize the park.”

Between the trail, whose use has increased during the pandemic, the skate park, pickle ball, and basketball court, that end of the park has in fact become the entryway.

Former Parks Director Becky Bombero, now the city’s deputy chief administrative officer, confirmed Condon’s observations. ​“The park was originally aligned toward Ashmun Street, and the park has been transformed so the front of the park has flipped to the Canal Trail,” where there’s no sign, she said.

That was a ​“testament to what you’ve done in that there are more places to celebrate.”

Bombero suggested that an updated edition of the Ashmun Street side sign was in order for the east side, both identifying the park and displaying the rules. Commissioners voted the item unanimously.

Let There Be Bollards

The city and the Town Green Special Services District have recently invested in lighting, the installation of turf, and other infrastructure improvements to turn the little pocket park on Temple Plaza into an urban oasis for all kinds of fun from performances to family ping pong.

That achievement, said the district Executive Director Win Davis, is hampered by cars still cutting through the fire lane adjacent to the park. That is especially dangerous during crowded events.

“We’ve invested large amounts of money to make this a nice space, and the last thing we want is for someone to be clipped by a car,” said Davis.

He laid out plans to install four temporary bollards placed to solve the problem. He urged the commissioners to vote to approve the plan so that he could go back to his own board and move ahead on the safety improvement as soon as possible.

The vote was taken, and it was unanimous in favor.

Skate Rink To Get New Operator

The long saga of the renovation of he Ralph Walker Skate Rink in East Rock, closed due to advanced disrepair back in 2016, took a giant step to a happy ending Tuesday night with an expected opening in October.

The Parks Commissioners gave the go-ahead to Rebecca Bombero to advance the contract between the city and its chosen operator to the Board of Alders for approval.

The new operator, Wonderland of Ice, manages the city-owned rinks in Bridgeport and Norwich, she reported. Bombero was asking for the commissioners’ vote of approval to advance the contract, which emerged from he city-run Request For Proposals process, to the Board of Alders for final approval.

The general terms are that the operator will pay New Haven $5,000 a month for the right to operate and 10 percent of any revenue over $100,000 from the rink as well as 10 percent of concession income. Bombero said those terms are vastly improved over the pre-2016 operations when the disrepair of he rink resulted in the city having to pay an operator to come in. That now would be reversed.

Commissioner Kevin Walton asked if the contract allows for sufficient free skating for the people of New Haven. Bombero assured him that eight hours of free skating are part of the city ordinances already and will be reiterated in the contract.

When she also satisfied Walton’s request that job opportunities at the rink be widely disseminated (through high school athletic departments, community management teams) and that the operator be strongly urged to hire locally, the commissioners voted unanimously for her to recommend the contract for approval to the Board of Alders.

To Never Sell Park Land Again

If there were an elephant on the agenda, it was the proposal by Pat Wallace and The Friends of Kensington Playground that the commissioners formally adopt a policy that the city will never sell park land and that every neighborhood have at least one playground/playscape and a water element.

The proposal, which Wallace and her colleague Olivia Marston said has been already endorsed by four community management teams, grew out of the decision of the commissioners to permit the sale in October last year of Kensington Park to a nonprofit developer of affordable housing.

The Friends of Kensington Playground formed as a result and sued the city.

Wallace and Marston were now asking the commissioners to adopt a policy to prevent such an outcome again.

“We’re not here to rehash the Kensington Playground decision, but there never was a CMT [community management team] vote,” Wallace said. ​“There are no villains here. The people who were pushing for this use had high motives, affordable housing. But we’ve proven there are other ways.”

Then she addressed the Parks Commission President David Belowsky personally: ​“Mr. Chairman you said to LCI [Livable City Initiative]: Don’t come back to this body with something like this. This proposal is meant to put into policy that directive you gave.

“However the lawsuit will work out, watching children take buckets of water over their heads, which some are doing is worthy of a Third World place.”

Belowsky replied on behalf of himself and his colleagues: ​“The commissioners were tormented by releasing this park for affordable housing. We received swatches of land for the park, and they promised they’d improve the park on Chapel Street right around the corner. They are improving the park on that corner for kids. We really feel mixed and bad about it.”

Marston said she, Wallace, and the Friends are still optimistic about the lawsuit’s outcome. ​“I think we’re going to save it”

“You have a lawsuit in the works, so you’ll see what happens in the courts,” Belowsky said.

As to the policy proposal (read the details and complete text here) and request for a vote on it, Belowsky replied, without discussion: ​“We’ll take that under consideration, have a meeting about it, and we will come up with our recommendations.”

Bombero said in the coming days Mayor Elicker would be in touch with the commission with regard to fill two vacancies on the commission.