Prospect Park

The Daily Plant : Thursday, October 24, 2002

PEP OFFICERS DESERVE A ROUND OF APPLAUSE

On Tuesday, October 8, during a regular day at Prospect Park, three Parks Enforcement Patrol officers became heroes. Officers Mercedes Velilla, Steven Merrill, and Robert Torres were on routine patrol when they were approached by a park patron. The patron reported that 3 people had surrounded him and that one was armed. The patron immediately fled the scene and reported it to the PEP officers.

Upon hearing this report, these officers immediately tracked down the 3 perpetrators. Officers Merrill and Velilla searched on foot while Officer Torres used a vehicle. They finally spotted the perps in a wooded area alongside the cemetery. Officer Torres blocked them with the vehicle he was driving while Officers Merrill and Velilla closed in and placed the three perps in custody, without injuring themselves or any other park patrons in the area.

"What they did is what I expect of my officers," said Captain David Calderon. "It’s pretty typical of the Brooklyn command."

"This incident is a good example of the things PEP officers do outside of issuing summonses and being posted at events," said Richard Gentles, Director of Parks Enforcement Patrol. "Our officers do risk their lives when responding to this type of incident and we’re proud of the swift actions of Officers Velilla, Merrill, and Torres."

A uniformed division within the Urban Park Service, PEP was created in 1981 to promote proper use and enjoyment of parks by enforcing park rules and regulations. The unarmed officers usually deal with issues such as crowd control, parking, dumping, vending, dogs, noise, and permit compliance. They also provide directions and information to park patrons, assist the homeless, reunite lost children with their parents, provide medical assistance to the injured, and rescue injured or stray animals. PEP officers patrol the city’s 28,000 acres of parkland, 14 miles of beach, 3 stadia, 63 pools, 30 recreation centers and 20 historic house museums. They patrol these areas on foot, horseback, bicycles, ATV’s, scooters, and in vehicles. They issue over 23,000 summonses, respond to over 14,000 requests for service, conduct over 200,000 public contacts, and make nearly 100 arrests per year.

On Saturday, October 26^th, Newmark Real Estate's Great Halloween Party is being held in Central Park. This FREE event is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and features the City’s largest pumpkin patch and also a very scary haunted house. Other activities include Nutella costume making, face painting, puppet shows, and arts & crafts activities. Our Urban Park Rangers with host fun activities for kids of all ages. Visitors can enter Central Park at 72^nd Street. This rain or shine event promises to get New Yorkers in the Halloween spirit. For information call (888) NYPARKS or visit www.nyc.gov/parks.

(Thursday, November 2, 1989)

Although gymnastics has grown more and more popular in the last decade, New York City gymnasts have found it difficult to find a gym near home where they can train for competition. The high price of renting a space large enough to accommodate Olympic-regulation in the five boroughs has pushed the sport out to the suburbs, making it necessary for aspiring Mary Lou’s to travel long distances to practice.

But now there is good news for the sport of gymnastics—Parks’ Recreation division has opened a new 10,000-square-foot training facility at the Cromwell Recreation Center in Tompkinsville, Staten Island. The $75,000 center has four full-time coaches and holds classes for preschoolers ages four and five and for beginner-level girls and boys ages six to 12. The center has a program for intermediate and advanced gymnasts up to age 20, from which Parks gymnastics team of 14 girls and 12 boys has been chosen.

"Other centuries had their driving forces.
What will ours have been when men look far back to it one day?
Maybe it won’t be the American Century, after all.
Or the Russian Century or the Atomic Century.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful, Phil, if it turned out to be everybody’s century,
when people all over the world—free people—found a way to live together?
I’d like to be around to see some of that, even the beginning."

Moss Hart
(1904–1961)