In front of a freshly refinished and repainted gazebo, Friends of Washington Market Park and others cut a ribbon on Sept. 20 to celebrate the park's reopening after being closed during the summer for repairs. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib
Following the recent reopening of Washington Market Park, closed most of the summer for much needed repairs, locals and officials gathered at the park’s freshly painted gazebo last Saturday to celebrate. Nearby, once again, were the welcome sights of running and climbing kids, and a birthday being celebrated around a picnic table.
“When the park was closed we didn’t realize how much we missed it because it was such a core part of the community,” said Amandalyn Jones, co-president of Friends of Washington Market Park, the volunteer group that oversees the park and its programming, and is spearheading the improvements.
The $180,000 park revamp, funded through the office of City Councilman Christopher Marte, included the repair and paving of the path around the park, a new irrigation and drainage system to prevent water from pooling on the lawn, and the repair of deteriorated play equipment footings. Friends of Washington Market Park raised the $10,000 needed to scrape, refinish and repaint the gazebo.
“I’m going to tell you that we’re not done,” Tricia Shimamura, Manhattan Borough Commissioner for the city’s Parks Department, told the gathering. “I really want to see a whole playground reconstruction eventually.”
That major redo, as yet unfunded, would cost an estimated $5.3 million and include all new play equipment. In the meantime, additional improvements, including a new surface for the playground and the refinishing of rusted play equipment is on the horizon, paid for with another $200,000 in discretionary funds recently announced by Marte. A new piece of play equipment, likely paid for through fundraising, is expected to replace a popular child-size wooden train that had been beyond repair and was removed.
“It’s easier to fundraise for something that’s tangible like a piece of play equipment, whereas scraping and refinishing equipment is not as exciting for donations,” said Kristen Korndoerfer, the Friends member who oversees construction.
The latest improvements were completed about a year later than originally scheduled.
“I know it may have seemed like forever,” Marte told the group before he and others cut a ribbon. “But in the park’s construction implementation world, this was done in lightning speed.”