IT’S OFF THE HOOK!
Red Hook fi nally reclaims recreation space as ball fi elds, rec center reopen
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
Red Hook residents who
have long been strapped for a
space for fun can look forward
to a brighter spring, as the city
has reopened its recreation center
and four of the ball fi elds
previously closed to clean up
lead-contaminated soil.
The federal Environmental
Protection Agency discovered
dangerous levels of lead from a
former lead smelting facility in
fi ve of the Red Hook Recreation
Area’s nine ballfi elds in 2015,
and promptly ordered the city
to close four of the fi elds and
begin a multi-million dollar
cleanup effort. After years of delay,
work fi nally began in September
2018, with a projected
completion date of March 2020.
Nearly two years after that
goal, the cleanup and installation
of new artifi cial turf fi elds
was fi nally completed and the
fi elds reopened to the public
last December, a representative
from the city’s Department of
Parks and Recreation said. The
city and the EPA removed grass
and a layer of contaminated
soil, as well as many of the trees
and plants on the perimeter of
the fi elds, laid a foot-thick layer
of clean fi ll over the remaining
contaminated soil, and installed
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COURIER LIFE, F 28 EBRUARY 18-24, 2022
the new turf.
The fi elds aren’t the only
space Red Hookers have gotten
back in the last few months. On
Jan. 31, the Red Hook Recreation
Center, which had been
closed since March 2020, reopened
with a full slate of programming
for athletes, artists,
and gamers of all ages.
All of the city’s recreation
centers closed because of the
pandemic nearly two years ago,
and all but three, including the
Red Hook location, reopened
in September. Two weeks before
the doors were set to reopen,
Hurricane Ida unleashed
historic winds and rain on the
city and damaged the recreation
center’s boiler, forcing the
Parks Department to keep the
building closed.
Residents raised the alarm
in December when they
learned that recreation center
employees, who had still been
working inside even though no
programs were running, were
being reassigned “indefi nitely.”
In a neighborhood already lacking
community spaces, many
worried that the closure would
stretch on.
“It’s kind of a burden on the
community because the children
don’t really have any place
to go now that is a safe space
that they are familiar with,”
said Tiffi ney Davis, Executive
Director of the Red Hook
Art Program, at the time. “For
them to just close because of
heat seems to be not fair to the
low-income community, when
they can just fi x the problem.”
Not only is the center critical
for programming, she
said, but to give residents of
the nearby Red Hook Houses
a reliable source of heat and
hot water, which are frequently
out at the public housing
complex.
David Small, who lives at
the complex, said he and other
seniors in the neighborhood
were without a safe place to socialize
— with the recreation
center closed and construction
ongoing at the Red Hook
Houses and the ball fi elds, they
were forced to rely exclusively
on technology.
““There’s nowhere to
gather,” he said in December.
“Yes, there’s cell phones,
yes, technology, if you’ve got a
phone, that’s the best thing you
can do. There’s no benches to sit
on, and with all the dust and everything.”
The Red Hook Recreation Center and a number of the previously-closed
ball fi elds have reopened, returning long-needed recreational spaces to
the community. File photo by Stefano Giovannini
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