Skelos secures $500k for playground

Courtesy Dean Skelos’s Office Dean Seklos, center, with check, presented the $500,000 to, from left, former Rockville Centre Little League Board Member Tom Alexanderson, RVCLL Baord Member Gene Kirley, Lions Club member Robin Webb, RVCLL Board Member Scott Albarelle, Rockville Centre Deputy Mayor Nancy Howard, RVCLL President Tom Bucaria, Mayor Francis X. Murray, Village Administrator Keith Spadaro, Deputy Village Administrator Kathleen Murray, former Lions Club President Ed Asip and Youth Council member Beth Hammerman.

Courtesy Dean Skelos's Office

On June 29, Senator Dean Skelos presented village officials with a check for $500,000 for the construction of a special-needs-accessible playground at Hickey Field.

The money from Skelos will help cover most of the construction of the playground, which will be specially designed so that all children, including those with developmental disabilities or those in wheelchairs, will be able to play.

“This project was a priority for the community and a priority for me,” Skelos said. “And thankfully, we were able to get the money.”

The playground project is a joint-effort by the village, the Lions Club and the Rockville Centre Little League.

The project will transform a rather unused section of Hickey Field on the corner of Sunrise Highway and North Forest Avenue. An unkempt field will be transformed, and the handball and basketball courts will be removed. The project will change about half of the Hickey Field area.

The final plans aren’t complete, but there are many ideas: a sound a music area, a multi-use court, accessible playground equipment and much more.

“This park is going from eyesore and under-used to state of the art,” said Tom Bucaria, president of the Little League. Bucaria is optimistic that the park could be completed by the summer or fall of 2016.