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Major Cleaning Planned for City Parks

Kerri Provost

July 29, 2010

The clean up planned for late August goes beyond picking up litter. As you can read below, broken items will be removed, courts will be repaired, and so forth. The City provides the following information:

The Week of the Parks schedule will include a centralized focus on the following areas:

Monday, August 23rd: Keney Park (Woodland Street entrance):

· Cut and remove fallen trees

· Clean and remove leaves along hiking roads and trails

· Remove old fence at tennis courts, clean area

· Repair broken benches

· Repair broken basketball rims

· Clean, patch and paint handball courts

· Remove old baseball backstop

Tuesday, August 24th: Colt Park

· Cut, remove and prune trees

· Repair park benches

· clean area under old stage/pavilion

· Clean and remove boards at old ice rink

· Repair Massek parking lot

· Repair basketball courts

Wednesday, August 25th: Goodwin Park

· Remove branches and wood along Maple Avenue

· Repair fit trail and equipment

· Repair basketball courts

· Trim and cut trees on Maple Avenue

Thursday, August 26th: Bushnell Park

· Remove perimeter shrubs near Pump House

· Repair park benches

· Prune Pump House shrubs

· Refurbish mulch beds where needed

· Trim and prune trees

· Remove old fencing around playground area

Friday, August 27th: Keney Park (Barbour Street entrance)

· Cut up and remove fallen trees

· Remove old fence and nets at northern tennis courts

· Replace or repair rims and nets at basketball courts

The Department of Health and Human Services, as part of the City’s “Health Hartford” campaign, will sponsor a number of activities in the parks on these same days. Health screenings and recreational events will occur and swimming pools will remain open this week (the week before school starts in Hartford) which is one extra week beyond what has already been scheduled.

The educational component will engage the newly created Green Ribbon Task Force. Mayor Segarra announced that neighborhood activist Bernadine Silvers and noted local architect Tyler Smith— both Founding Directors of Riverfront Recapture— are the Chairpersons. One of their many roles is to be part of panel discussions about the unique park system’s past, present and future including exciting activities at the Pump House in Bushnell Park.

What will kick off on August 20th as a celebration at the Riverfront with the Dragon Boat and Asian Festival will culminate on Saturday, August 28th with a Community Clean-Up Day. All of this is in conjunction with the long term vision of the “One City, One Plan” strategy for conservation and development (POCD 2020) that was adopted in June.