BY KYLE VUILLE
One Korean War veterans
battle to maintain a veteran’s
memorial upkeep has
proved to be a labor of love
and a salute to fellow Bronx
veterans like himself.
The now 88-year-old Herb
Barret said he stumbled
upon the Grove Memorial in
the early 2000’s while sitting
on a park bench on the edge
of Van Cortlandt Park along
Broadway Ave. when he noticed
what looked like a rock
sticking out of the ground in
a barren plot of land among
fallen trees and no fence enclosure.
Barret got up to take a
closer look to fi nd a plinth
with a bronze plaque honoring
a WWII hero.
Barret, an aircraft mechanic
in the Marine Corp.
and friend, Don Tannen, a
WWII Navy fl ight line controller,
began their mission
to spruce up the long forgotten
memorial.
Being a member of the
Jewish War Veterans of the
U.S.A., he began contacting
the local American Legion
and Veteran of Foreign Wars
Post asking how Memorial
Grove came about.
Memorial Grove was
designed by the Parks Department
in partnership
with the Peter G. Lehman
No. 8646 VFW Post to honor
WWII veterans in 1949.
The plot is also home to
memorials to honor Franklin
Delano Roosevelt and
Bronx chapter of the sons
of the American Gold Star
Mothers, a group dedicated
to mothers whose sons were
lost in the war.
Barret’s questioning and
pestering of local offi cials,
assemblymen and councilmen
to have the park restored
became a full-time
job for the retired Marine.
According to Barret,
most veterans in the Kingsbridge/
Riverdale area did
not even know of the memorial.
“The Parks Department
forgot about that, it got
trashed over the years, people
came and barbequed and
littered all over the grove,”
Barret said.
In 2007, the nuisance
Barret had become to local
offi cials proved worthy. Assemblyman
Jeffrey Dinowitz
had leveraged the Parks
Department to install a full
enclosing fence and clean
the property.
Barret remembered back
in 2009 Councilman Koppell
and himself meeting with
the Parks Dept. Commissioner
on a rainy day standing
underneath the awning
of the maintenance building
.“
Mr. Koppell is a very
tall man, towering over the
woman, kept asking her ‘how
much money do you need to
restore the park?’ and fi nally
she said $250.
The councilman allocated
$250,000 to the Parks
Department and set out to
fi nd a contractor.
After a considerable
amount of time due to delays
in fi nding a contractor that
fi t the criteria, the park was
restored.
Since then, Barret has
taken it upon himself to replace
missing fl ags and keep
faux fl owers alongside each
plaque.
“I always keep the fl ags in
the trunk of my car and my
wife buys the fl owers at all
the discount stores around
here,” Barret said.
Barret is turning 89 next
month, but can still be found
raking leaves into piles at
Memorial Grove for the
Parks Department to collect.
www.BXTimes.com BRONX WEEKLY March 1, 2020 8
Veteran fi ghts to maintain VC Park’s Memorial Grove
Korean War veteran Herb Barret stands in front of Memorial Grove on the edge of Van Cortlandt Park
in Kingsbridge. Barret has taken it upon himself to maintain the war memorial over the past years.
Photo by Kyle Vuille/Schneps Media
Group addresses ways to feel safer in community
BY JASON COHEN
South Bronx residents recently
gathered to discuss how to make the
community safer and how to work
with their neighbors.
On Thursday, Feruary. 6, SOS,
Save Our Streets, a non-violence
activist group, held its second meeting
of the year centered on creating
a plan to protect communities.
The youth made their voices
known that night. Kassandra, 17, a
member of the SOS Youth Council,
said the south Bronx needs more
recreation centers and safe places
for kids to go. But, stressed the parents
can only do so much.
“You can’t force them (kids) to
go,” she said. “You have to want to
be there. There should be programs
for everybody.”
The teen explained that often
people act out in school or join
gangs because they don’t have a
stable home. She noted that people
often say how people behave starts
with the parents, but questioned
what if the parents are absentee.
“That’s the reason they roam
the streets because the home is not
the home,” she explained. “They
feel outside is a better environment
than their household.”
She then discussed the negative
impact of social media on today’s
society.
“It (social media) was better
when you were younger,” she said.
“When you’re younger, you are not
gang affi liated. It was designed to
be a good thing, but people make it
into something else.”
Sabrina, 11, of Morissania,
told the Bronx Times she does not
feel safe in her neighborhood. She
recalled how one of her friends
was followed home one time and
robbed.
She said there needs to be more
community centers and safe places
for kids to go rather than just liquor
stores and 24/7 bodegas. Sabrina
noted her mom taught her that not
everyone wants to be her friend.
“Some of these kids get killed
and I don’t want to be one of them,”
she said. “Some of these kids are
getting into gangs.”
Another resident stressed how
important it is to make an attempt
to hold others accountable, do volunteer
work and get to know their
neighbors.
He said instead of committing
crimes, people should talk to each
other. Some people think they can
only be drugs dealers or never leave
the hood, but they need to realize
they can be more.
“We all come from the same
neighborhood,” he said. “We all
have the same problems. We all
know what poverty is. You can be
greater than what you are.”
There were also parents who are
quite concerned about the violence
in the neighborhood.
Asher Diamond, who lives on
East 163rd, has three kids, 15,8 and
5 and is worried her oldest may be
in a gang.
She has seen him put up gang
signs and is scared of what could
happen if it’s true. She knows it
a bad area, but hopes he chooses
sports instead of that life.
“I would really like him to play
basketball,” she said. “I do feel safe,
but my son has had altercations
with kids before.”
James Reddick, program supervisor of SOS, speaks at a community meeting on February 6. Photo by Jason Cohen
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