The Grandpa Al Lewis Playground, at Capobianco Field, and the Blackwell Park Playground will be closed Aug. 13 - Oct. 15 due to ground surface renovations.
New padded-rubber flooring will replace the existing broken concrete, cracked asphalt and wood-chip ground surfaces. New fencing and picnic tables will also be installed.
The replacement and installation of some new playground equipment is planned for Phase 2 of the project to start in the spring of 2019.
While RIOC understands the timing concerns of the closure, the playgrounds are in desperate need of attention from both equipment and flooring-safety standpoints. The schedule has been reviewed and this approach, timewise, was found to be the least impactful due to the ability to complete the total amount of work with one closure, as opposed to staggering.
The time of year for the rubber flooring is also critical, as contractors are not able to pour the rubber material once the weather falls to certain low temperature in the fall.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
(FYI: The Grandpa Al Lewis Playground is named after an American character actor best known for his role as Count Dracula look-alike "Grandpa", opposite Fred Gwynne's and Yvonne De Carlo's characters on the CBS television series "The Munsters" from 1964 to 1966 and its subsequent film versions. Mr. Lewis was a Roosevelt Island resident who, later in life, was also a restaurant owner, political candidate and radio broadcaster).