May 19, 2007: Vol. 30, No. 20
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Parks commissioner Adrian Benepe (tall guy in center) and Councilman Vince Gentile (shorter guy without Viking hat) hang out with students from PS 69 after the groundbreaking for the new Leif Ericson playground
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del.icio.usIf only Norwegian explorer Leif Ericson were alive to see this.
Leif Ericson Park, located between 66th and 67th Street on Eighth Avenue, will undergo a $1.4-million renovation that would make any Viking proud.
The new makeover will include new play equipment with a Viking ship theme, new swings, a synthetic turf volleyball area, basketball half-courts, game tables, and benches, a picnic area with accessible seating, and lush perimeter gardens.
Officials got downright poetic at the prospect of a new park.
“Youngsters will delight in the new playground,” said Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe at Tuesday’s groundbreaking (elected officials and agency heads donned horned helmets for the occasion, and Swedish fish, Danish cookies, and Icelandic water were handed out to the kids).
“Just as the park’s namesake explored North America, children can make their own discoveries while playing in this state-of-the-art playground.”
Indeed, the youngest Vikings are already looking forward to seeing the barren playground transformed into a plunderers paradise.
“It could be really cool,” said one young boy, though he quickly added a cynical aside: “Anything would be better than how it is now.”
Almost all of the rehab costs were finagled by Councilman Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge).
The park is named for Leif Ericson, the first millennial Viking best known as the first European to set foot on North America (he did it nearly 500 years before Columbus, that copycat).
©2007 The Brooklyn Paper
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