Douglaston resident Douglas Montgomery takes particular pride in his community, so it particularly annoyed him this spring when he watched the grounds around the Long Island Rail Road’s (LIRR) Douglaston Station became overgrown and unsightly.
As Civic Beautification Chair of the local Garden Club, Montgomery spearheads civic efforts to tend public spaces around the neighborhood. For four years, the Club had tended the grass and shrubs around the station, “because they said they had no budget.”
But this year, the Garden Club, feeling the economic pressure, decided they couldn’t afford to keep doing yard work for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).
“I wrote letters, even to [Councilmember] Tony Avella and [Senator] Frank Padavan,” Montgomery said. According to Montgomery, toward the end of June, he got a letter back from Padavan, with a copy of a letter from Helena Williams, president of the LIRR.
According to Williams, who has since moved up to acting chair of the MTA, a crew would have done the work, but discovered “poison ivy and thistle.” Williams said they had to spray, and would be able to get the project done by the week of July 6.
It didn’t happen, so on Sunday July 12, Montgomery, a licensed New York City tree pruner and a mentor at P.S. 98’s “Little Gardner’s Program,” showed up with his own gardening tools and did the work himself.
Montgomery, with the aid of friends and club members already cares for Kathleen Turner Richardson Park in Douglaston Hill and sections of the Alameda Mall in Douglaston Park – even though the areas are the responsibility of the Parks Department.
“That’s what happens when you take over – they assume you’ll do it, I guess,” he said.
