By Cynthia Koons
Informational banners, a restored lake shoreline and a garden are among the latest improvements planned for Flushing Meadows Corona Park since the establishment of the Conservancy last year.
Members of the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Conservancy dined with legislators last Thursday evening in an effort to promote initiatives within the park and solicit donations for further improvements a year after the Conservancy was formed.
Its founders include civic leaders, community board member and elected officials at the borough, city and state level.
“We devote our energies on behalf of the park,” Conservancy President Pat Dolan said. “This is an opportunity for people who are supportive of the park to meet their legislators.”
Among the more than 200 guests, former Borough President Claire Shulman, state Sens. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Whitestone) and Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) and Assemblyman Barry Grodenchik (D-Flushing) showed their support for the sprawling park that is home to the Queens Zoo, Meadow Lake, Terrace on the Park (where the dinner was held) and acres of rare green space in northern Queens.
The 1,255-acre park was the site of two world’s fairs in 1939 and 1964 and has gained many of its landmarks from those events, including Shea Stadium, the National Tennis Center and the public marina at Flushing Bay.
“There’s a desperate need to maintain the park,” said Community Board 13 Chairman Richard Hellenbrecht, who was president of the Conservancy last year. His district runs along the Nassau border from Queens Village to Rosedale.
“We’re very new,” he said. “There has been some progress, which will go up very soon.”
The progress he spoke of includes a series of banners, highlighting attractions in the park such as the soccer fields and dinosaur playgrounds, to be posted throughout the western part. The Conservancy gave the banners to Queens Parks Commissioner Richard Murphy at the dinner.
There are plans to restore part of the Meadow Lake shoreline and to plant a small meadow garden near Jurassic Playground with specimens that existed before Robert Moses carved the park out of central Queens.
“We have several grants, one of which will improve the waterfront of Meadow Lake,” Hellenbrecht said. He said state funding will finance the lake improvements and that other grants may be on the way.
Community Board 7 Chairman Gene Kelty said he came with other CB 7 members to show how important the park is to the residents of the Flushing, College Point and Whitestone neighborhoods.
“We’re very concerned about how the park gets developed,” he said.
One of the concerns, which Dolan declined to comment on, is the potential for the city’s Olympic 2012 bid to encroach on the park. In the city’s proposal, water events are slated to be held in the park. Discussions about the construction of a Jets stadium in the vicinity of nearby Shea Stadium have also touched a nerve with park conservationists.
Last Thursday’s event, however, was more of a meet-and-greet than a forum to discuss issues such as these.
Robert Hettenback, the director of North Shore Long Island Health System, said his hospital, the Richmond Hill Community Hospital, sponsored the event to publicize his facility as well as to promote initiatives within the park.
“In recent years the park is making a comeback,” Hettenback said. “This is a partnership to make sure the park gets support from their community and for their legislators to make sure support for the park is there.”
Reach reporter Cynthia Koons by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 141.
