FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM OCTOBER 25, 2018 • KIDS & EDUCATION • THE QUEENS COURIER 45
kids & education
Redwood Playground renovations offi cially underway
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@cnglocal.com
@QNS
Soon, kids will be frolicking in a new and
improved playground at Cunningham
Park.
Local elected offi cials and community
leaders joined New York City Parks
Department commissioner Mitchell
Silver for a groundbreaking ceremony to
mark the start of a $2 million reconstruction
project at Redwood Playground in
Fresh Meadows.
“The improvements to Redwood
Playground will make this site more welcoming,
more accessible, and best of all:
more fun!” said Silver. “By next summer
the kids who come to Cunningham Park
will enjoy an updated play area with an
expanded spray shower to keep them cool.”
Cunningham Park Lower Playground,
also known as Redwood Playground, is a
play area primarily for younger children.
Th e city Parks Department will install
new spray showers, play equipment, and
an accessible ramp to connect the playground
with the comfort station.
Th e plan also includes a welcoming
entrance, reduced perimeter fencing as
well as upgraded circulation and landscaping.
Drainage will be improved, and
the existing decorative metal fence art
will be preserved, according to the Parks
Department.
Th e project began in July and is expected
to be completed by summer 2019,
Silver said.
Councilman Barry Grodenchik, chair
of the City Council’s Committee on Parks
and Recreation, who grew up playing
baseball at Cunningham Park, said the
upgrade was very much needed.
“Th is playground was in poor shape for
too long, and our children deserve a new,
clean, safe space,” said Grodenchik. “I
look forward to seeing children and families
playing outside, getting exercise and
enjoying the updated playground.”
Total funding for the project is $2 million,
including allocations of $1.2 million
from Borough President Melinda Katz,
$500,000 from Grodenchik, and $325,000
from Mayor Bill de Blasio, Silver said.
“Cunningham Park is an amazing
place, but it’s amazing because of everyone
that works day and night to make
sure that we maintain it and keep it in
the great fashion that the community
deserves,” said Katz.
Marc Haken, president of Friends of
Cunningham Park Inc., an organization
that is dedicated to improve, preserve
and protect the park and its facilities, said
that the group looks forward to the new
improvements.
“I think over the years we’ve done a
pretty damn good job. Our legislators, as
long as I have been around, have helped
us with our capital projects and granting
us monies to buy equipment and
other things,” said Haken. “We’re really
pleased that this particular project is
moving along.”
A second phase of renovations to
Redwood Playground is already funded
with $4 million from the mayor, to
improve nearby sports, repaired fencing
and addition of new adult fi tness equipment.
Design is expected to begin in the
spring 2019.
Photos by Carlotta Mohamed/THE COURIER
Local elected offi cials and community leaders break ground at Redwood Playground in Cunningham Park, Fresh Meadows. The reconstruction of the park is expected to be completed by summer 2019.
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