PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

Ideas for Oval Park Go Up on Drawing Board

By JAMES FERGUSSON

Few Norwood residents have failed to notice how shabby Williamsbridge Oval, the neighborhood’s 19-acre park, has become in recent years. The main field is almost completely devoid of grass and the crumbling perimeter walls and rickety fences are in urgent need of repair. The good news, however, is that significant renovations are in the pipeline.

The work will include: an all-weather athletics track and an artificial-turf field; improvements to the promenade and recreation center; slope stabilization; an area specifically for seniors; new walls and fences around the park’s boundaries; somewhere to play roller hockey; a skateboarder friendly area; and redesigned playgrounds.

Parts of the Oval have seen work in recent years, including the almost complete renovation of the northern entrance, but nothing on this scale. Approximately $13 million will be spent on the project, with the money coming from revenue generated by the controversial filtration plant being built in Van Cortland Park. (In return for hosting the plant, the Bronx has been allocated $220 million for its parks over the next five years.)

Parks Department officials are now mulling over ideas generated at a Dec. 1 public scoping meeting held in the Oval Park House. In attendance were Hector Aponte, the Bronx Parks commissioner, other park staff, and representatives of local elected officials. Also present were community leaders from the Mosholu Woodlawn South Community Coalition (MWSCC), Mosholu Preservation Corporation (MPC), Community Board 7, and Mosholu Montefiore Community Center.

Ashe Reardon, a spokesman for the Parks Department, said the meeting was “positive.” “We got lots of feedback and we’re in the process of assessing the thoughts of the community,” he said, adding that his agency was eager to “make it [the park] as diverse a place as possible.”

Lisa Murray, an MWSCC member who lives on the Oval, was also pleased with the meeting and reported that there was a consensus on a number of issues. “Some of the problems are so glaring,” she said. “Like the field. No one thought the field shouldn’t be a priority.” Everyone also agreed that new fences and pathways were needed, said Dart Westphal, president of MPC (the nonprofit that publishes the Norwood News) and that the south playground needed more attention than the north playground.

There were some differences of opinion, Murray said. Some wanted to do away with the dog run while others wanted to improve it. The possibility of a skate park for skateboarders, in-line skaters and freestyle bikers, was another contentious issue. A skate park was in the original plan put forward by the city, but in a survey conducted by MWSCC late last year, and presented at the meeting, that feature was not found to be in the top five priorities among current Oval users.

“The community didn’t express a strong interest in a skate park,” said Reardon, “and we’re now looking more at a multi-purpose area that skateboarders can use but not specifically for skate boarders.”

The Parks Department will present some initial plans at another session in the spring, where residents will have one last chance to influence the final design.

According to Reardon, the formal design stage is likely to begin in late winter or early spring, and take a year to complete, with construction beginning in late 2007. (The Parks Department Web site offers a different time frame, with the design finished by this coming fall and work commencing approximately four months later.) No information was available as to how long the project would take.

Some Bronx residents, if given a choice, would have done without the local park improvements if it meant the community wouldn’t be home to the filtration plant. For Murray, however, it’s time to look forward. “I’m not happy the plant is in our neighborhood, but that debate is over,” she said. “I’m very excited about what it [the Oval renovations] means for the community. There’s potential for it to be a really wonderful space where the community can interact.”

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