Story Playground

A Bronx Story: Four Bronx Parks Receive $14 Million In Renovations

IMMEDIATE
Thursday, August 14, 2008
No. 88
http://www.nyc.gov/parks

First Deputy Mayor Patricia E. Harris and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe today cut the ribbon on renovations to four South Bronx Parks with officials including State Senator Efrain Gonzalez Jr., Assembly Members Ruben Diaz, Jr., and Jose Rivera; Council Member Annabel Palma, and neighborhood children.

“Story Playground and the three other projects we are opening today are part of an exciting and powerful story that Mayor Bloomberg and the Administration have been writing all across the Bronx and around the City,” said First Deputy Mayor Harris.

“Today is an exciting day in the South Bronx as we reopen four beautifully remodeled parks thank to more than $14 million of Croton Mitigation Funds,” said Commissioner Benepe. “With improvements from spray showers to new play equipment to refurbished ballfields, Bronx residents of all ages have an abundance of brand new recreation facilities. The ribbons we cut today at Story Playground, Soundview Park, Aqueduct Lands Playground and Devoe Park represent a sample of the great work happening all across the borough and a promise kept to residents of The Bronx.”

Parks celebrated more than $14 million in renovations to Story Playground, Soundview Park, Aqueduct Lands Playground and Devoe Park. New play equipment, spray showers, color-seal basketball courts, seating, fencing and landscaping are just some of the improvements made to these South Bronx parks.

These projects were funded as part of a $200 million investment in Bronx parks, financed by mitigation funds from the construction of the Croton Water Filtration Plant through the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the Municipal Water Finance Authority.

Croton-funded projects fall into five categories and include improving neighborhood parks, renovating regional recreation facilities, developing the Bronx Greenway, improving and expanding access to the Bronx waterfront, and “greening” the borough.

To date, Parks has completed 21 Croton projects, totaling more than $34 million and 20 more projects totaling more than $62 million are in construction. There are also 34 additional projects in design totaling more than $99 million.

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CONTACT: Jama Adams/Trish Bertuccio (212) 360-1311