Community Board 10 tells city: Fix Dyker Park bathrooms!

May 7, 2013 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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If you go to Dyker Beach Park to play softball or sit on a bench to enjoy nature, you will have a big problem if nature calls. The park’s restrooms are out of order and have been for some time, according to frustrated Community Board 10 officials, who said they have been trying to get the city’s Parks Department to fix the toilets for months to no avail.

“The district office has received several calls from residents concerned about the Dyker Beach Park restrooms. They are still out of service,” Board 10 District Manager Josephine Beckmann told board members at a recent meeting. The board serves Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge.

Visitors to sprawling Dyker Beach Park, which stretches from 86th Street and Seventh Avenue to Cropsey Avenue and Bay 8th Street, don’t have to hold it in if they feel the need to go to the bathroom, Board 10 officials said. There are Portosans set up inside the park. But it’s not the same as having a full service rest room, Beckmann said.

“This is a frustrating issue for this park as it is home to numerous baseball teams and leagues. Repairs were supposed to have been finished last fall,” Beckmann said.

Relief is on the way, but it’s going to take a while, according to a Parks Department spokeswoman “An assessment of the issue at the Dyker Beach Park comfort stations revealed damage beyond our expectations, including repairs to pipes that run underneath the roadway,” Meghan Lalor wrote in an email to a reporter. “We are currently obtaining permits from DEP and DOT and we hope to open the comfort station before the end of the summer,” she wrote.

Beckmann said she is concerned that park goers will “lose an entire season of restroom use.”

Dyker Beach Park is a diverse recreation area containing an 18-hole golf course, a junior golf course, a dog walk, baseball fields, basketball courts, handball courts, and children’s playgrounds. The park’s history dates back to 1895, when the City of Brooklyn purchased the first parcel of land from the Dyker Meadow Land Improvement Company to build a park, according to the Parks Department’s website. The development of the park proceeded slowly. Four additional parcels of land were acquired by New York City between 1924 and 1927. Another three lots were transferred to the Parks Department in 1934.

In other neighborhood news, Beckmann said her office has also received word that several muni-meters on Bay Ridge streets are out of order. One broken meter is located in front of the community board office at 8119 Fifth Ave., she said. She urged board members to call 311 to report inoperable meters. “They will need the meter number, which looks like a phone number at the top of the meter,” she said.

With summer approaching, the board office is gearing up for a busy block party season. Residents looking to hold block parties are required to obtain city permits. The community board office can assist with the application filing. “The district office is using the new computerized Street Activity Permit application. Block party and street festival Applications must be made on line,” Beckmann said.

Board 10 requires block party organizers to demonstrate that there is significant support on their streets for the idea of closing the streets to traffic to host a party. “We are working with our block associations to make sure that Community Board Ten guidelines continue to be met, most importantly that we receive petitions from more than 50 percent of residents living on requesting block,” Beckmann said.