East Side Parks To Get Some Love

Artie Natalino and his father before him have been active in sustaining the quality of life in Fair Haven Heights for more than half a century.

That includes helping to organize and sustain the little league headquartered at Fairmont Park, and even personally getting after the decades-long problem of illegal dumpers at Quarry Park Preserve on Russell Street at the top of Grand Avenue.

Natalie is about to get some help, as those two long neglected parks on the east side of the city are poised to get some municipal love.

That news emerged at the regular monthly meeting of the Quinnipiac East Management team Tuesday night at St. James Church on Grand Avenue near Quinnipiac.

Last week the State Bond Commission announced, among other major items benefiting the city, “$575,000 for improvements to the little league baseball fields of Fairmont Park in the Fair Haven section of the city including drainage repair and security upgrades.”

“As with all our parks processes, there will be a community session scheduled later this fall to begin to refine the ideas that have been floated into an updated master plan,“wrote Director of Parks, Recreation and Trees Rebecca Bombero in an email message following the meeting.

The city’s engineering department has already been at work on some components of the drainage and erosion control problems, she added.

That would likely include low-lying sections of the park, like the Dom Aitro little league ballfields, where, after the rains Tuesday night, the area around the first base line was still seriously puddled up.

Deer Or Dumper?

In a wide-ranging discussion of quality of life issues that plague the area, including chronic littering along Route 80 and other roads, Natalino told top Fair Haven Heights cop Lt. Jason Rentkowicz that he is not shy about personally chasing away midnight dumpers, especially from the frequently hit area along the margins of Quarry Park Preserve on Russell Street.

“To catch an illegal dumper at two in the morning is rough,” Rentkowicz commiserated .

Natalino recalled that he was once out in his car late at night with an eye to chase off dumpers when a deer crossed in front.

“Can I put their head in my trunk?” Natalino said rhetorically to Rentkowicz.

“The deer or the dumper?” the lieutenant replied.

Rentkowicz added that revitalizing that area to promote good behaviors as opposed to bad, such as dumping, would help.

Livable City Initiative Neighborhood Specialist Pauley Morbidelli summarized a meeting convened this summer, at the suggestion of Fair Haven Heights Alder Rose Santana, to address specifically the Quarry Park Preserve dumping issue.

Adding signage, upgrading the trails, and perhaps altering the small, boulder-lined parking apron were among the ideas discussed, he said. ​“Hopefully we can get a grasp on how to deter it [illegal dumping],” Morbidelli added.

Rentkowicz said that at the meeting, which he attended, deploying cameras was discussed. However, the necessary electrical lines weren’t there. ​“I know it’s difficult and been going on for many years,” he said.

“Every department is understaffed, and yet we’re paying the highest taxes,” Natalino opined. ​“Eventually we’re going to catch someone and do it ourselves.”

Of the summer meeting about Quarry Preserve Park, Bombero stated: ​“We’ve been reviewing re-configuring the parking on the street with the Traffic Commission and rangers have done a preliminary walk of the trails. We hope to schedule a late fall hike and to remove the apron and reconfugre the rocks once the parking has been reconfigured.”