Parks, Rec & Community Facilities
The City of Richmond is about to add another property to the James River Park System. A grassy 6+ acres along the Floodwall and Maury Street in South Richmond called the “Stormwater Retention Basin”… richmond.com
At a Friends of Bryan Park board meeting on March 27, Dr. Norman Merrifield, the Richmond Director of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities, stated that under no circumstance would the City allow part of the Park to be used as a construction easement for the proposed Shirley subdivision…. northrichmondnews.com
….Parks & Rec had oscillated between allowing and not allowing the materials and skateboarders to remain over the last several months….[Parks & Rec director Dr. Norman Merrifield] agreed that improved coordination among Fonticello residents and the city would go a long way to improve the situation for both homeowners and skaters…. rvanews.com
…skaters and those who live near and use the park came together before the meeting called by city park officials….They came Wednesday night with a plan – a reprieve for at least a month for the current park and a desire to build a real skate park further into Fonticello, away from houses and traffic. wtvr.com
The press release seems to have a totally different tone than your conversations with Larry Miller. Are Miller and Merrifield on the same page? hillsandheights.org
The City of Richmond is in a battle with a group of skaters who had taken over Carter Jones Park on Baimbridge Street. The City said if the skaters don’t take down their equipment by next Wednesday, the Parks and Rec Department will do it for them. nbc12.com
Parks and Recreation
Friday, February 10, 2012
Department Statement on Removal of Skateboard Ramps
The Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities has asked users of the skateboard ramps placed on the tennis courts at Carter Jones Park, located at 2813 Bainbridge St., to remove the ramps by Wednesday, February 15. The public notice also advises that if the ramps are not removed by that date, they will be removed by the City.“While the department supports skateboarding as a recreational activity, we have determined that the ramps are being used after the park is closed to the public at sunset and late into the night, which has resulted in continuing complaints from the neighborhood,” said Dr. Norman C. Merrifield, director of the department. “It is unfortunate that the situation has come to this, however we have found that there is no other way to prevent this activity after hours in the park other than to remove the equipment. We will be meeting with the skateboarders for discussion with them in hopes of getting their understanding and cooperation,” Merrifield said.# # #Posted by Richmond Va Park and Rec at 2:58 PM
A recently installed city historic marker on Church Hill ends with “…LUMPKINS JAIL, KNOWN AS ‘HELL’S HALF ACRE.’”
From Virginia African American Heritage Program: “The jail was known as “The Devil’s Half Acre”….”
But some local skateboarders say they’re worried that the incident could stymie efforts to secure funding for additional skate parks.
via Style Weekly.
A new audit has found that employees of the Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities used city-issued credit cards to make more than $200,000 in purchases at Sam’s Club over four years — including more than $6,100 in undocumented gifts for employees and residents and $13,000 for items that are apparently missing.
A narrower search for items purchased in the past two years found 45 missing. Of those, 16 were purchased by one recreation programs supervisor, who said they were for two community centers and that he was accompanied by supervisors from the centers when he bought the items. The center supervisors denied they were with him.