At a community forum attended by city agency representatives, Norwood residents came out in force last week to demand improvements to Williamsbridge Oval Park, a social and recreational hub for thousands of locals.

The park is in the process of undergoing a $13.5 million renovation. But the renovation project doesn’t address some of the community’s ongoing safety concerns, especially with regard to the dog run and pedestrian access.

While the plan addresses some of the demands, earning praise from the crowd of nearly 125 park lovers who packed into Epiphany Lutheran Church on March 26, others were left up in the air, leaving a bad taste in the mouth of some of the more active residents who make up the Friends of Williamsbridge Oval.

“We didn’t want to surprise anyone, or try to embarrass anyone with our questions,” said William Adriance, a Norwood resident who moderated some of the forum. “We just wanted to get the answers that our community deserves.”    

Several of the Friends group worked hard for months to set up the forum after first coming together earlier this winter to push the Parks Department into fixing the deteriorating dog run at the Oval.

While the Parks Department made some upgrades, the group decided they wanted further improvements to the dog run and, at the same time, better and safer access to other parts of the Oval and its surrounding streets and entrances. After several meetings, the group came up with a checklist, or scorecard, of demands they wanted to address with the Parks Department, the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the local City Council member, Oliver Koppell.

With the help of organizers from the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, the Oval Friends made it happen in a big way. Some local leaders said they couldn’t remember the last time more than a hundred people showed up for a community meeting.

While they couldn’t quite corral the borough commissioners of the parks or transportation departments, two representatives – Charles Ukegbu, the deputy borough commissioner for transportation, and Arnyce Foster, the local parks manager – did show up to answer questions from the moderators and audience.

Jamin Sewell, Koppell’s counsel, showed up late, but bearing good news. Sewell said the councilman promised he would allocate $50,000 for the dog run and other park improvements. He said he hoped to get another $150,000 on top of that, but added that the Council was experiencing budget constraints.

Ukegbu also scored points when he said the DOT would be studying the entrances, signage and streetscapes around the park for the next two months and would check back with the Friends groups periodically. He said the DOT would commit to making safe zone markings in front of the tunnel entrance to the park near Bainbridge Avenue, a dangerous crossing area for families and kids. It would be done by the summer, he said.

Meanwhile, Foster was noncommittal when asked if the dog run would be moved to another location and completely revamped, as the $13.5 million renovation plan calls for. The dog run relocation is part of the final stages of the plan. If the money runs out, the dog run will stay where it is.

Adriance and others were upset with Foster because she repeatedly said she couldn’t answer for Bronx Park Commissioner Hector Aponte, even though he had been asked to come and had been sent the questions two weeks in advance (as had the DOT and Koppell’s office). 

“Beyond our December meeting with him, we tried repeatedly to contact Hector Aponte so that we could discuss these issues with him directly before the March 26 event,” Adriance said. “His office kept giving us the run-around.”