Signs Point To Park Upgrades Across Town

The parks department received the go-ahead to proceed with a series of improvements throughout the city:

• A restoration of athletic facilities at Kimberly Field in the Hill.

• Replacing the aging and inadequate guardrails at the dangerous curve on Townsend Avenue by Pardee Sea Wall promenade facing the harbor.

• Enlarging signs at Scantlebury Park to ensure people know that only pickle ball and tennis are allowed on those spiffy new courts

• Creating uniform playground rule signs throughout the city, whose first rule is that ​“Adult supervision is highly recommended.”

Those items were all unanimously voted on and approved at a full-court busy New Haven Park Commissioners meeting via the Zoom teleconferencing app.

Kimberly Field

“Kimberly Field, one of our biggest grassy open fields in the Hill, on a historic river, doesn’t drain very well,” city Chief Landscape Architect Katharine Jacobs told the commissioners

Because of that and a general level of less intense use, especially on its softball fields, the park has fallen into disrepair.

She said a plan is in place to address that, with the help of approximately $100,000 of city capital funds, and grants from the state.

Drainage improvements will include sub-grade perforated pipes to bring water from areas that don’t drain well into the municipal system.

The plan includes removal of an abandoned backstop and dugout on the south side, but a retention and improvement of the baseball field and the cricket pitch.

“We’re also exploring,” she added, ​“a configuration that would make those latter areas also usable for soccer,” which is a growing demand citywide.

Also planned is a walking path around the park featuring greenery to be planted with help from Yale’s Urban Resources Initiative. Neighbors who are not athletic have let the city know they would like something in the to-be-reconfigured space for them to enjoy, Jacobs side.

Commission President David Belowsky and Commissioners Carl Babb, Hector Torres, Kevin Walton, and the aldermanic rep Ernie Santiago, all voted to approve the plan.

Before the unanimous vote, Commissioner Santiago asked why certain fields in certain neighborhoods appear to be beaten up while others are well taken care of. Is the threadbare condition of Kimberly Field an indication of a problem with the equitable use of parks maintenance resources?

“I’ve been hearing a lot about this non-maintenance,” said Santiago. ​“Our tax money should go to all the fields. The city gives money [for support and maintenance] to all the fields,” he said, and there shouldn’t be differences based on, for example, that those that are more frequently rented get better care.

“There are definitely some equity issues for fields that don’t bring in money. And that’s definitely for [a larger] discussion,” said Jacobs.

Better Guard Rails

Next up to the plate was Park Deputy Director William Carone with an even more pressing matter: the need to replace the low street guardrails on Townsend Avenue, adjacent to Pardee Seawall Park, at the speedy curve as the road winds down to the stop sign at Parker Street.

Carone reported that six to ten car crashes occur a year due to speeding in the area.

“We’ve got to do something; last week a car went through the guard rail and then went through the seawall fence,” he said.

Carone showed an example of ​“the Merritt Parkway guard rail,” composed of thick wood with steel posts, ​“and its ornamental design doesn’t look bad.” He asked for a go-ahead to proceed to get the pricing on the new guardrails, which, Carone added, are rated for trucks.

Discussion ensued about focusing on reducing speed on Townsend with the installation of bumps. Carone brought the discussion back to the guard rails, which could be replaced quickly compared to the more lengthy process of submitting to the city for traffic calming measures.

“Now, we just have a post and rail system, and the posts are not deep enough in the ground, and they’re not steel. A motorcycle went through two years ago,” he said to underline the urgency.

The commissioners voted unanimously to approve the idea, provided the general aim be to retain the same look while augmenting safety protection.

Belowsky predicted it would be unlikely the work could begin as winter is nearly arrived. Carone countered that the ground is not frozen yet. If the replacement work can be done, the sooner the better, he said.

Playground Safety Rules

Jacobs reported that neighbors near the recently renovated Goffe Street Park had queried her about city rules for kids and parents’ conduct at little-kid playgrounds.

{media_31}Jacobs said her research indicated that there is nothing uniform in various signs around the city playgrounds, and that nothing in the city statutes that addresses this.

Some signs state that adult supervision is required for toddlers, For the older-kid areas, it is only recommended.

“It’s up to this board,” she laid down the challenge, ​“to have an approach that would be appropriate.”

She helped the discussion along by referencing the federal government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission’s guidebook to Public Playground Safety, which features the phrase ​“adult supervision is highly recommended.”

It’s a guidance document, Jacobs explained. ​“The federal government doesn’t legislate but most states reference this with the force of law.”

A wide-ranging discussion ensued about how some park signs, again without uniformity, also include the phrase ​“all city ordinances are strictly enforced.” Those usually include noticing that dogs need to be leashed; no fires; trash must be placed in receptacles; parks close at sunset; and no alcohol consumption permitted.

Belowsky and the other commissioners agreed with Jacobs’ suggestion that ​“supervision highly recommended” is better than ​“supervision required.”

“You can’t force people,” he said.

He also endorsed having the same rules, same signs in all the parks.

Jacobs had on hand the text of just that sign. It featured the rules about dogs, fires, trash, alcohol, and parks closing times. Jacobs proposed adding that adult supervision of children is now highly recommended.

Just to be sure, Commissioner Kevin Walton asked, ​“Does that cover us legally?”

“If we say ​‘adult supervision is highly recommended,’ that is echoing the law as per the handbook. Yes.”

Scantlebury Park and ​“Tabacco

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The commissioners also revisited matters related to the success of the new skateboard facility at Scantlebury Park, where signage concerns have arisen.

After a brief discussion, the commissioners agreed that larger signs, at both sides of the park, are now needed and that the signage should also indicate that the courts near the skateboard park are restricted to tennis and to pickle ball.

Katherine Jacobs had, as in the previous agenda items, brought templates or mock-ups for the signage, which, in this instance also included a prohibition in the park of the use of ​“tabacco.”

The sharp-eyed Commission’s President Belowsky noted the misspelling, and was complimented for his good catch.

Three years ago the city passed an ordinance making city playgrounds and kid play areas tobacco-free zones. Jacobs said she would double check the ordinance.

That would be city Ordinance Number OR-2015 – 0010.

Many people are unaware of the law, which bans all forms of tobacco in city-owned or operated school grounds, sports fields, playgrounds, Lighthouse Point Park, and city-owned buildings, according to this information sheet put out by the city health department in 2015.

“That should be on the signs too,” said Belowsky.