Jan. 13 planning meeting for Veteran's Memorial Park open to public

Warwick — Just two months ago, the Village of Warwick hired a park planner to come up with a five-year plan for Veteran’s Memorial Park, the largest of the seven parks in the village. On Saturday, Jan. 13, the village is holding its second meeting to discuss the park and a potential plan. And this time it is open to the public. “Our first meeting was with the stakeholders in the park,” said Village of Warwick trustee Eileen Patterson. “The stakeholders will be at this meeting as well, but this is the public’s first opportunity to give us their suggestions.” Those stakeholders include the veterans themselves, the fire department, library officials and the leagues that use the park. Memorial Park is home to the Warwick Little League, the Warwick Youth Football League, the Over-35 Softball League, as well as the home base for the firefighters’ carnival each year. The village hired a planner earlier this year to look at the park, gather ideas from residents and come up with a five-year plan. Jon Jadrosich was hired for the job, in part using a $10,000 grant from Orange County. “We talked about a lot of things at the first meeting,” said Patterson. “There really isn’t a ton of changes needed. It is a beautiful park, but there is some unused potential. We discussed adding trails, a bike path, maybe a playground, even more lighting. It isn’t about making this a sports complex.” One of the ideas that was met with much approval at the last meeting was better drainage near the men’s field. “There is an area between the men’s field and the woods that gets really wet,” said Patterson. “We would possibly put in drainage so it won’t be wet. It will open up space outside of the field. They can use it for the carnival without damaging the field.” When this part of the process is over, Patterson said the village will meet once or twice more with the planner and then get the plan. “It won’t be a long process,” she added. The 56-acre Memorial Park is the largest of the village’s seven parks. The others include Stanley-Deming Park, Railroad Green, Hallowed Green, Pond Hill Park, Lewis Woodlands and Southern Lane Park. The plan being devised is only dealing with Veteran’s Memorial Park The meeting on Jan. 13 will be held at Village Hall, starting at 2 p.m.