Yorktown Completes Chelsea Park Renovation

Yorktown’s playground safety initiative achieved a new milestone with the completion of the Chelsea Park Playground renovation.

The outdated and unsafe playground at Chelsea Park was demolished in June and upgraded with a new batting cage, foul poles, flagpole, and parking lot. The refurbished softball field and dugouts will accommodate the Town’s budding girls’ softball program.

“The work to elevate our playgrounds to 21st-century standards continues with the rollout of this new softball facility,” said Supervisor Matt Slater. “This is the seventh park we have updated and made safe this year. At the same time, the Town Board recently created a parks trust fund to ensure that our parks receive the timely investments and upgrades our residents deserve.”

Chelsea Park Playground got a safety overhaul after Supervisor Slater and parks Superintendent James Martorano discovered that safety inspections had not been performed on the town’s parks in decades.

Last year, they commissioned a safety audit of seven parks and repairs on six of the parks were completed earlier this year. Those parks were Yorkhill Park, Railroad Park, Sparkle Lake Park, Willow Park, Fox Den Park and Junior Lake Park.

“We have already begun auditing eight additional playgrounds,” said Superintendent James Martorano. “The end goal is to ensure that our parks meet national safety standards.”

The playgrounds audited thus far are: Downing Park, Ivy Knolls Park, Blackberry Woods Park, Deer Hollow Park, Hanover East Park, Kensington Woods Park, Shrub Oak Park and Veterans Park.

The park-safety overhaul involved designating a staff member of Parks & Recreation to be properly trained and certified by the National Parks and Recreation Association.