Matthews Muliner Playground

The Daily Plant : Wednesday, April 25, 2007

A New Season Of Ribbon Cuttings Begins In The Bronx

Photo by Malcolm Pinckney

On Monday, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe joined City Council Member James Vacca, former City Council Member Madeline Provenzano, Community Board 11 District Manager John Fratta, Community Board 11 Parks Chair Joseph Carfora, and second graders from P.S. 83 to cut the ribbon on $1.6 million in renovations to Matthews Muliner Playground.

The $1.6 million capital project was funded by $1.3 million of City Council funds and $376,000 of Mayoral funds. $110,000 of the Mayoral funds was allocated through the New York City Department of Environmental Protection for the installation of a new grey water irrigation system, the first of its kind in a Bronx park. Through the grey water irrigation system, water from the children’s spray shower is drained into an underground storage tank and redirected to trees, plants and shrubs in other areas of the park, thereby conserving water, reducing energy, and fueling plant growth.

The state-of-the-art playground also features two brightly colored play equipment structures with playful designs, two handball and two full basketball courts, drinking fountains, a new spray shower area, swings, seating areas and plantings.

Matthews Muliner Playground is named after David Matthews, former Mayor of New York (1776-1783) and Thomas Muliner, a 17th century Dutch settler in the area.

PITCH IN FOR PARKS

On March 31, Queens held its 2nd annual “Pitch In for Parks.” This is a volunteer event where little leagues work with Parks staff to clean and prepare the ballfields prior to Opening Day. This was a joint project between Maintenance & Operations, Recreation, Partnerships and the Borough Commissioner's staff, spearheaded by Chief Langsam.

“Pitch In for Parks” took place at eight parks across Queens, including Tenney, Highland and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. At Tenney Park, Glen Oaks Little League, DAC Sports Little League and Girl Scout Troop 4501 contributed to the clean-up effort. Highland Park hosted approximately 300 kids from Brooklyn East Sports & Recreation, and Flushing Meadows-Corona Park had approximately 200 kids from several soccer leagues including the Big Apple Youth and Metro Kids leagues.

The goal of “Pitch In for Parks” is to foster a sense of ownership and responsibility among the children who use our ballfields on a daily basis. Breakfast was served and all participants received a Mets bag with pins and certificate of participation awards.

Written by Jibrail Nor and Susan Friedman

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”

Kurt Vonnegut
(1922 – 2007)