Mayor Marvin's Column: Restoring Sagamore Park

After much planning, I am pleased to announce that the Village will be embarking on the refurbishment of Sagamore Park within the week with the goal of completion for play by Memorial Day Weekend. The beautification of Maltby Field will follow soon after.

Signs will be posted next week announcing the closing of Sagamore Park and several parking spaces may be needed on Sagamore Road from time to time as required for equipment.

The thrust of the renewal of the park is to provide handicap access and increased safety and comfort for children at play.

The steep driveway will no longer provide entry to the park. Instead, a system of ADA compliant paths and railings will begin at the front of the park and wind around to the top. The driveway will be sealed off, save for use by emergency vehicles.

Trees will be relocated and new shrubbery will be added not only near the pathway but throughout the park and its borders as screening. It will be necessary to remove three trees, one an evergreen of fairly significant size.

Our State grant money of $175,000 secured for us by Assemblywoman Paulin for Sagamore Park will cover the cost of the repairs. However, in order to stay within budget, new equipment will not be purchased at this time, rather existing structures will be refurbished.

Some of the low stone walls will be replaced with safer methods of grading the land and all hard surfaces under the existing equipment will be replaced with a safety fiber mulch in a natural color to blendinwithnature. ThesmallareafortrikesandBigWheelswillalsohaveasafetysurface.

Due to the robust and aggressive response of the fifteen contractors who responded to our Request For Proposal, the park will be refurbished for approximately $162,000, still leaving us a small cushion as contingency and still remain at our $175,000 grant amount.

Sagamore Park's last major refurbishment was over 20 years ago and given the heavy usage, the renewal is certainly necessary. Also as a veteran of the park, future moms will now not have to watch their toddlers chase balls down the steep hill with heart in mouth, while chasing and praying that the last person to arrive closed the gate.

As additional monies become available, be it through State grants, some tax dollars or ideally donations from charitable groups, we will continue to improve and landscape the Village's only play park open daily to all.

Upon completion of the Sagamore improvements, Maltby Park will be completely regraded with new top soil and seed. A walking path will be added with amenities such as benches and landscaping. We envision Maltby as a passive park or Village Green harkening to many New England town green spaces. State Senator Jeffrey Klein secured a $100,000 State grant for the Villageto complete the above work we envision as a Phase 1.

Going forward with community concurrence, we hope to add such amerutles as a community garden, restroom facilities adjacent to the paddle courts and perhaps a gazebo near the corner adjacent to Paxton Avenue. The Maltby Park is home to a major gateway into our Village as steady traffic moves to and from the Bronx River Parkway.

As with all things, the impact of the Malty Park improvements will cause us to seek and find a new location for the storage of snow during our winter months. We were very fortunate this winter with the lack of snowfall and as a result, we were not impacted with the annual problem of storing snow removed from our Village streets. We have asked the County for permission to use Scout Field once again for snow storage during the winter months. We are awaiting their decision.

It is imperative that we preserve and beautify our open spaces in the Village since they are at such a premium, unfortunately being quite scarce and small. That being said, the park settings must blend into and not detract from the adjacent residential areas. We aim to enhance the value of not only the parks but the nearby residential neighborhoods.