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Segarra Announces Park Cleanup Effort

Corporate And Volunteer Help Make Parks Week In August Possible

By STEVEN GOODE

July 28, 2010

HARTFORD — — Standing in trash-strewn Colt Park Wednesday, Mayor Pedro Segarra said the condition of the city's parks is unacceptable and that he's going to do something about it.

From Aug. 23 to 28, with some corporate and volunteer help, crews will visit Keney, Colt, Goodwin, and Bushnell parks in a cleanup effort called Parks Week.

Workers will be cutting, pruning and removing fallen trees, branches and shrubs; repairing parking areas, broken fences, benches, tennis and basketball courts; and removing trash and leaves.

Segarra said he decided to organize Parks Week as a result of what he and other family members observed and comments from residents who responded to a survey associated with the city's plan of conservation and development. He said the idea developed over his first weekend as mayor and when he walked into the office Monday morning it was on his to-do list.

The main obstacle was finding money to hire the necessary workers. Segarra said the city identified some funding and is hiring 30 seasonal part-time workers.

"This is a shared responsibility between citizens, municipal government, corporations, the state and federal government," he said.

Segarra said he is also planning to clean up city-owned cemeteries, including the historic Old North Cemetery, where he said work is already underway.

"We have to do it," he said. "It's not just a cemetery — it's a historical asset."

Parks Week will include health screenings and recreational events and city pools will remain open an additional week. The initiative will start at Riverfront Recapture's Dragon Boat and Asian Festival on Aug. 20 and culminate with a community cleanup day Aug. 28.