Petition to keep Jerome Park Reservoir under water
Efforts continue with slave memorial at Drake Park
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,BTR JANUARY 24-30, 2020 3
BY JASON COHEN
The fi ght to keep the borough’s
landmarked reservoir
fi lled with water has continued.
After the NYC Department
of Environmental Protection
dug in on its plan to keep the
Jerome Park Reservoir basin
empty, residents and activists
started a petition last week demanding
a full basin.
Some of the groups that
started the petition include
Jerome Park Friends and
Neighbors, Fort Independence
Park Neighborhood
Association and Bronx Council
for Environmental Quality.
“Why are we against emptying
the North Basin of the
Reservoir?” the petition reads
as the community groups outline
their reasons:
• The beauty of the Jerome
Park Reservoir is a central
feature of our neighborhood.
• Its beauty increases the
property values of homes and
coops in our community.
• A full reservoir supports
our health by cooling our air;
an almost-empty basin breeds
mosquitoes and other insects.
• The plan to cover the historic
wall of the reservoir with
Residents have fi led a petition with the DEP to not keep the basin of Jerome Park Reservoir empty.
Schneps Media Jason Cohen
concrete will ruin its historic
character.
“We ask . . . that the Department
of Environmental
Protection rescind their Modifi
ed Negative Declaration
on CEQR 17DEP022X. We ask
that the agency consider alternatives
to draining the North
Basin, and continue to keep
the Jerome Park Reservoir’s
North and South Basins full
of water.
In October, the DEP sent
a letter claiming that leaving
the north basin of the Jerome
Park Reservoir empty didn’t
require an environmental impact
study.
On Wednesday, November
20, the Community Board 8
Environment and Sanitation
Committee rejected the DEP’s
modifi ed negative letter of declaration
regarding the reservoir.
In January 2018, DEP announced
the start of a $15 million
project to rehabilitate
gatehouses, install new, lower
fencing and upgrade security
infrastructure at the reservoir.
Work on the project began
late in 2018, will continue
through 2021 and will help to
ensure the long-term reliability
of the city’s Croton water
supply system.
However, in June, DEP
representatives told the committee
that the project would
require the northern basin to
remain permanently empty,
so that it can be used as an
emergency storage basin for
treated water discharge from
the Croton Water Treatment
Plant.
According to Anne Marie
Garti, a co–founder of the Jerome
Park Conservancy, the
relationship between the DEP
and the community has been
strenuous.
The reservoir was listed on
the National Register of Historic
Places in 2000.
She pointed out that the DEP
is mandated by law to conduct
an environmental study and
its proposed changes to more
than 30 acres of open space is
contrary to the Croton Water
Treatment Plant and Final
Environmental Impact Statement
and all documentation
received by CB8 and the State
Historic Preservation Offi ce
prior to 2019.
Also, before gaining approval
from the SPHO and
CB8, DEP failed to inform
them that it intended to keep
the north basin empty.
Co-chair of the committee
Robert Fanuzzi said the committee
passed a resolution on
Tuesday, January 14 against
the negative declaration and
calls for the DEP to explain
why the basin needs to be
empty.
“We’re appalled that the
state historic preservation offi
ce would sign off on a change
that would alter this historic
resource,” Fanuzzi said.
BY JASON COHEN
The six-year effort to create
a memorial for slaves at Drake
Park in Hunts Point still has no
resolution.
In 2014 teachers and students
from P.S. 48 in Hunts
Point determined an area that
is now Joseph Rodman Drake
Park was once an Indian and
African slave burial ground
based on a photograph from
1910.
However, there is no monument
acknowledging the slaves
buried in the park in an area
outside the fenced-off grave.
Drake Park currently contains
a fenced-off cemetery that
harkens back to a time when
wealthy slave-owning families
had mansions in Hunt’s Point.
Later that year, former
Senator Jeff Klein announced
he was allocating $180,000 in
state funding to memorialize
the slave workers likely buried
in an overgrown patch of land
there.
But nothing ever came to
fruition.
However, his successor,
Senator Alessandra Biaggi, be-
lieves she has discovered the
snag and now has the ball rolling
again.
A spokesman for Biaggi explained
that the senator’s offi ce
discovered that Klein’s offi ce
designated money for the park,
but never submitted a Legislative
Intent Form to the Parks
Department.
“When we learned of this
we reached out to the Senate Finance
Committee about the status
of the funds,” said a Biaggi
spokesman.
Biaggi’s offi ce sent the paperwork
to Parks last week and
is awaiting its return. Once her
offi ce receives the letter, they
can then send it to the funding
source, who will then release
the money, which can be used
to create the memorial.
But, the Parks Department
doesn’t seem to be on the same
page. A spokesman for Parks
said they are actively working
with Biaggi’s offi ce, but didn’t
mention anything about the
legislative form.
According to the Parks Department,
in 2014, Senator
Klein was interested in securing
a state grant to further commemorate
the burial ground.
In order for the grant to be
executed, a consensus on what
the community and stakeholders
wanted at the site was performed.
However the cost estimates
for the desired memorial
far exceeded the scope of the
proposed grant.
“We are committed to honoring
the history of our parkland,”
the Parks Department
said in a statement. “After the
students and staff of P.S. 48 rediscovered
the slave burial
ground in Drake Park, we installed
an updated historical
interpretive sign to memorialize
the site’s history. We look
forward to continuing our discussions
with State Senator
Biaggi regarding the future of
Drake Park.”
While this back and forth
is taking place, local historian
Philip Panaritis and Justin
Czarka of The Hunts Point
Burial Project, applied for historical
status with the NYC
Landmarks Preservation Commission
nine months ago and
will present their case to the
commission in the spring.
After seeing no activity for
several years, Panaritis hopes
things are fi nally headed in the
right direction.
“Once (the historic designation)
is done no one can touch
it,” Panaritis stressed.
He hopes the park gets recognized
as historic and Parks
and Biaggi’s offi ce fi gures out
how to pay for the memorial.
Drake Park in Hunts Point, which a local historian is trying to have a memorial created for the slaves that were
once there. Schneps Media Jason Cohen