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Politics & Government

Renovations Completed to Forest City Community Park Clubhouse

Town of Hempstead and Forest City Community Association team up for facility enhancement project.

The Town of Hempstead and the Forest City Community Association have joined forces to renovate the Clubhouse in Wantagh. Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray and Town Councilman Gary Hudes, R-Levittown,  have announced that work is completed on the improved plaza entryway that leads to the Clubhouse.

The improvements to the clubhouse include a new front entry door and entry sign, a new light pole, decorative interlocking paving stones, ornamental railings and landscaping with rose and evergreen bushes. The FCCA, which celebrated their 60-year anniversary in 2010, and the Town of Hempstead worked together to make this renovation unique and meaningful to the town residents.

“We had been pressing the town to fix the walkway for a while,” said Forest City Community Association president Rob Steiner.  “The old walkway was between 20 and 30 years old, cracking, and not handicap accessible.”

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 “We have a unique relationship with the FCCA and have always had a dialogue with them about their needs with the park,” said Murray.

Steiner says that the Town of Hempstead and the FCCA were able to “work together to make a project that would have been an average sidewalk project something more.”

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One way in which the community was able to turn this project into something more was through the selling of 85 bcommemorative bricks that were put into the new walkway along with blank bricks. Local families and residents in the area were able to put a sentiment or their family name on a brick and then place it in the walkway. The money from the selling of the bricks went toward the Forest City Community Association.

Steiner says there will be a secondary brick installation in the spring because people saw how great they turned out and want to contribute. Blank bricks will be popped out and more personalized bricks will be added.

“There has been an overwhelming response,” said Steiner. “Even people who have moved out of
the community saw pictures of the renovated walkway on our facebook page and sent money so they could have a brick too.”

The adding of the bricks makes the project more personalized for the people of the community and allows them to give something back.  Murray said this helps the Town of Hempstead operated park become “a little part of history.”

Another important recent change that was made to Forest City Community Park is that it is now more wheelchair accessible. The path to the clubhouse was made wider so wheelchairs can get up and down it more easily and the incline to the door was made more wheelchair accessible by adding less steps. The clubhouse, which dates back to 1950, features countless meetings of clubs and various activities for residents of all ages.

The Town of Hempstead and the FCCA both agree that their joint effort is what made this project successful. “

“The town is always happy to work with the Forest City Community Association,” said Murray. “ This was a very successful improvement of the clubhouse.”

“It was very easy to work with Kate Murray and the town parks people were very accommodating,” said Steiner.

Steiner hopes to have an unveiling of the renovated clubhouse in the spring, perhaps in conjunction with the Easter egg hunt that takes place in the park every year. In the future Steiner hopes to make improvements on the building itself, which is very old.

 Regarding further improvements on the Forest City Park Clubhouse Murray said, “there is nothing on the books right now but we are always looking to improve the infrastructure of our parks.”

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