Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans), right, met last Thursday with Gateway National Recreation Area representatives and almost a dozen members of the South Queens communities that regularly use Howard Beach’s Charles Park. Because of a lack of maintenance, its ball fields present dangers to the thousands of young baseball and softball players who use them each spring and summer, parents and coaches say.After seeing the state of the fields, Meeks pledged to work with Gateway officials to specifically address ways to improve their conditions. He also said he will reach out to groups such as New Yorkers for Parks to gauge their interest in adding a Charles Park improvement project.
“It’s no longer about the issues in the park. It’s about what we are going to do to solve this. We owe it, morally, to our children to have a functioning park,” said Dorothy McCloskey, left, the chairwoman of the Committee to Rebuild Charles Park, the group that invited Meeks to Howard Beach. Fellow member Anthony Allia joins McCloskey and Meeks.
—Joseph Wendelken
