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VC Park Renovation To Resume Soon
Other Parks Planning Under Way

By HEATHER HADDON

As the weather warms and people return to local parks, the city is also getting on track with several improvement projects.

Work is slated to resume on the southeast corner of Van Cortlandt Park in the next few weeks after it stalled during the winter. The Parks Department held a groundbreaking in November on the $2.3 million renovation, which includes a new playground, comfort station and benches. Since then, the only evidence of work is fencing around several trees.

The holdup was due to delays in permits for sewer excavation and other applications filed with the city Department of Environmental Projection and the Buildings Department, according to Ashe Reardon, a Parks spokesperson. He said opening a full construction site is also difficult in the winter, though the season was unusually mild this year.

The rehab is slated to conclude in the fall, and the Parks Department is keeping to that timeline. “A lot of planning and paperwork has been moving forward,” Reardon said.

Paul Sawyer, director of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, said he was looking forward to work resuming. “The Friends and the community hope it’s finished as soon as possible,” he said. “We are glad they are building it.”

The project, which is officially known as Sachkerah Woods Playground, was funded out of remediation monies from the controversial filtration plant now being built on adjacent parkland just to the north.

The $240 million in remediation monies are funding projects all over the borough, including a $13 million remake of the Williamsbridge Oval. The Parks Department held a public scoping meeting in December to generate initial ideas for the project. Hector Aponte, the Bronx Parks commissioner, said his agency is in the process of developing a schematic design, which should be completed by the end of April. It will then be presented for a final round of public comment during an upcoming Community Board 7 meeting.

MS 80 students, some of whom attended the scoping meeting through the school’s Norwood Action Club, think the final public presentation is crucial. “The community should have a feeling of what’s coming to them in the future,” said Michael Salas, 12, who lives near the Oval.

A makeover of the Oval’s northern entrance, made possible by a separate City Council allocation, is almost complete. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held in the next few weeks after the final inspection, according to Aponte. The $450,000 renovation includes new stairs, benches, landscaping and stonework.

Other local park improvements are farther off. Designs for sorely needed renovations to Aqueduct Walk in University Heights are slated to begin next summer, according to Reardon. Construction will begin in 2008.

The design process will start next fall for pathways and green space around the Jerome Park Reservoir, with work beginning in 2008.

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