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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, NOVEMBER 24, 2019
Local pols fund Marine Park renovations
BY JESSICA PARKS
Marine Park is fi nally getting a facelift!
State and city leaders are teaming up
to pour $11.1 million into renovations for
Marine Park — years after the community
was promised funds that never materialized.
“Every single inch of this playground
will be redone, starting from scratch
starting right now,” said State Sen. Andrew
Gounardes.
The freshman state legislator promised
$5.6 million for the restoration of the
park’s playground, while Councilman
Alan Maisel secured another $4.5 million
from the City Council to restore the park’s
inner oval, and Borough President Eric
Adams pledged another $1 million from
the city’s fi scal year 2021 capital plan.
The infl ux of new funding comes after
Gounardes’ predecessor, former State
Sen. Marty Golden, promised $4 million
in funding for repairs in 2018, shortly before
losing reelection — but the funding
never showed up.
That move sparked accusations from
Senate Democrats that Golden — a Republican
— had announced the money without
fi rst securing the funding as an 11thhour
stunt to win reelection.
“Marty Golden lied to Brooklyn families
and took credit for money he did nothing
to secure and knew wasn’t coming,”
Senate Democratic spokesman Gary Ginsburg
told this paper in September.
A spokeswoman for Senate Republicans
fi red back, saying that the Parks Department
had failed to fi ll out forms authorizing
the funds — and chalked up the
ordeal to bureaucratic oversight.
Now, Gounardes’ offi ce has promised
that all the paperwork is fi lled out — and
the money will be delivered in an expedited
manner.
“We have been able to cut through all
that red tape in partnership with the mayor’s
offi ce to make sure we can start the
scoping work now,” said Gounardes. “Not
two years from now.”
State funds are typically held for two
years before the Parks Department can
access them, but the newly earmarked
money will be allocated immediately —
allowing construction to be completed by
2023, according to Brooklyn Parks Commissioner
Marty Maher.
The spongy material of the playground
fl oor is deteriorating and losing its color.
And while the $11.1 million will be enough
to facilitate most of the Marine Park renovation,
the legislator’s expect to secure
even more money once the city budget is
fi nalized.
“By next June, I am confi dent we will
have most of the money that we need to
bring this park to the best shape it’s been
in many, many, m Politicians teamed up to secure $11 million to revitalize Marine Park. Photo by Jessica Parks any years,” said Maisel.
Marine Park elementary unveils ‘buddy
benches’ to commemorate fallen firefighter
BY JESSICA PARKS
Marine Park community members
unveiled two “buddy benches” at a neighborhood
elementary school on Wednesday,
commemorating a former student —
local firefighter Steven Pollard — who
fell to his death in January while attempting
to rescue car crash victims on
a Mill Basin bridge.
Neighborhood residents helped raise
funds to install the benches at the PS
207 schoolyard, where “children who are
feeling lonely can go to find a friend,”
said school secretary Jessica Scarfogoliero,
who saw the benches as a fitting
tribute to the fallen hero.
“Firefighter Pollard’s bench will not
only provide a fitting memorial for the
friend we’ve lost but will serve as a reminder
that Steven was a friend to the
PS 207 community, where he lived and
served,” she said.
Students are urged to lookout for students
sitting on the new benches, and to
keep them company — as they may be in
need of a friend, according to Scarfogoliero.
The memorials — which Scarfogoliero
helped commission along with the
other faculty — are inscribed with the
words “In Loving Memory of Steven Pollard,
FDNY.”
Pollard — a 30-year-old veteran of Canarsie’s
Ladder Company 170 — fatally
fell 52 feet after slipping between a 3-foot
gap separating opposing traffic lanes
while attempting to cross to the Brooklyn
bound side of the bridge in a heroic
rescue effort.
“Steven was everything we want in a
firefighter — strong, smart, hard-working,
dedicated, and above all else, brave,”
Fire Department Commissioner Daniel
Nigro said the firefighter’s funeral earlier
this year. “No doubt, he had been
preparing his entire life for this moment
— to be a firefighter. He worked so hard
for this career, to follow his father — and
his brother — into the world’s greatest
fire department.”
PS 207 unveiled a “buddy bench” for fallen FDNY fi refi ghter Steven Pollard – who used to attend the
school. Photo by John Farina