The mayor of the Region of Queens is hoping to bring a positive outcome from an honest mistake.
Mayor Darlene Norman said she thought the clean up of Pine Grove Park was just a simple maintenance order to remove abandoned decorations and debris.
However, when many residents voiced their anger over the removal of a number of decorated rocks hidden throughout the park, Norman realized she had made a great mistake.
“I just felt like I was going to cry,” she said.
“I started reading these comments, I thought, ‘I’ve just taken this happiness from all of these kids.’ Then when older people without children also said they loved walking through the park because it lifted their spirits, it just made me feel rotten. I felt like the Grinch.”
Comments on the original post announcing the clean up of the park lambasted not only Norman, but her council and municipal staff as well, both of which had no hand in the rocks’ removal, she said.
In an apology video released on the RQM Facebook page last week, Norman said she had no idea the rocks meant so much to so many, or else she would have instructed staff to leave them behind.
Although the incident is now behind her, she said the issues that allowed this to happen in the first place still need to be addressed.
“There are no policies developed around Pine Grove Park about what goes in there, what happens in there,” she said, “There’s nothing. For now it’s just wide open Region property, but its a great asset.”
She suggested the formation of a ‘Friends of Pine Grove’ advisory group might be the answer to giving some structure to the park to better determine its future uses.
“There are a lot of issues that you can look at within the park,” Norman said.
“For example, if there is a group or organization who would like to use the park for a weekend, or a Halloween event, or if someone would like to get married in the park. What do we have (for rules) around that?
“There are so many things that need to be looked at to make it a very user friendly place… It needs some future guidance and help from the community as to what they would like to see as the years progress.”
These discussions around the park cannot be made without a group set in place, said Norman, leaving those interested in using the park for more than just hiking with nowhere to turn to for permission.
While the municipality is busy gearing up to build their budget, Norman said she would like to see the group come together within the next few months.
However the logistics of the group such as who sits in it, what responsibilities it will have and how far its reach over the park should be still needs to be worked out.
Meanwhile, Norman has since welcomed the painted rocks back to the park for all to seek out and enjoy, but has stood strong on her decision to not allow plastic or other decorations in the park.
“It’s a natural park, and those things just take away from ‘the natural,'” she said.
“You wouldn’t go to a natural or outdoor wild park and see those types of things. So yes, let the rocks stay because everyone enjoys them, but the other materials, its not the place for those.”
