mobanmarketUPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Two Upper East Side parks are getting major upgrades, according to the city.
At Stanley Issacs Park, the New York Rangers are footing the bill to fully-reconstruct the hockey rink at Stanley Issacs Park, a project worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The other neighborhood overhaul is a $1.4 million renovation by the Parks Department to rebuild the pool deck and drainage system at John Jay Park.
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Both projects, according to officials from the city Parks Departments, would take about six months to complete once construction begins.
Here’s what we learned at Thursday’s Community Board 8 meeting:
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Stanley Issacs Park Rink
The hockey rink replacement is part of the Parks Department’s “Adopt A Park” program, and is fully in the hands of the Rangers and Madison Square Garden.
“We’re not touching money,” said Parks chief marketing and development officer, Christine Dabrow, “we’re accepting in-kind goods and services.”
That means that the project can get done faster and for less money, she claimed.
Dabrow said the overhaul will include totally replacing the “very worn” surface, fencing, walls, nets and the chain link fence. She added that all of the funding is in place and construction could start in mid-August and would last between six to eight weeks.
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At the end of the project, Dabrow says to expect a nice ribbon cutting celebration.
John Jay Pool
Further south, but still along the FDR Drive, the Parks Department announced a $1.4 million mayoral-funded renovation of the pool deck and drainage system at John Jay Park.
Part of the Parks “State of Good Repairs Program,” the work seeks to refurbish and reconstruct “anything that has gone beyond its useful life,” said Parks senior landscape architect Nicolas Grefenstette, as well as bring the deck into ADA compliance.
In addition to the drainage system and the concrete deck surface, lounge chairs, railings, benches, pool ladders, drinking fountains and planting beds.
The finished deck will resemble a beach ball by using pigmented concrete, said Grefenstette.
“It’s kind of a fun way to do something a little bit more whimsical,” he said. “A little bit more playful.”
Felice Farber, co-chair of the Community Board 8 Parks Committee, raised the vexing question of rats, asking if there were any design changes that could help mitigate the comfort some rodents seem to take burrowing in the park’s dirt areas, which Grefenstette said they would consider.
Another Board member, Rita Popper, wanted to hear more about the plan for maintenance.
“I did bring up my son, who is now 57, in that park and it was not in disrepair 57 years ago.,” Popper said.
Parks officials said that they follow a very stringent standard under their parks inspections program, but like with all things, sometimes it’s just the end of the road.
“Every material has a life expectancy,” said Grefenstette. “No garden or no landscape is zero maintenance.”
Grefenstette said the project is in the design stage still, but the city aims to begin construction in the fall to hopefully run concurrently with a basketball court area rebuild.
The pool was last renovated in 2019.
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