The City Council will spend $23,500 to tear down a building to make room for a new pocket park on Connaught Hill.
By: Linda Seida
LAMBERTVILLE A new park on Connaught Hill is a symbol of what people can do when they work together, with some help from the city.
Less than a decade ago, the hill was the playground of drug dealers.
"There were a lot of fisticuffs, fights over drug deals, a lot of unsavory characters," Connaught Hill resident Audrey Frankowski recalled. "The cops were up here all the time, sometimes with guns drawn."
The landscape was marred by piles of discarded tires, abandoned cars and an old school bus where two squatters had taken up residence. A third squatter lived in a trailer.
"The forgotten hill; that’s how people up here referred to it for years," Ms. Frankowski said.
Between the drug deals and the squatters, it wasn’t a place where children were allowed to play freely outside.
No longer.
The city removed the tires and the vehicles. Local Boy Scouts helped out with the cleanup of trash and debris.
Now the city is preparing to construct a pocket park on Hancock Street. The City Council recently awarded a $23,500 contract to Grinnell Recycling of Sparta for the demolition of a dilapidated abandoned structure on the site.
The demolition will make way for landscaping, playground equipment and possibly a half basketball court. The final details are being hammered out.
"Whatever the community wants for what we can get for $150,000," Mayor David Del Vecchio said.
The park is being funded by a $150,000 grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.
Public restrooms likely will not be on the list.
"That creates a hangout for kids," Ms. Frankowski said.
No schedule is available yet for the installation of playground equipment or an opening day. The City Council has asked architect Michael Burns to compile a schedule.
The hill’s residents banded together in 2000 as the Connaught Hill Homeowners Association and presented a wish list to the city for the area’s cleanup. The city consulted them again as the park was being planned, and their wish list included playground equipment, benches to sit and relax, a picnic table or two, landscaping and lighting as well as a half court for basketball, Ms. Frankowski said.
"This is a very exciting thing for the city," Mayor Del Vecchio said. "It’s not often when you add a park to your inventory."
"The community worked together to restore the community," Ms. Frankowski said. "The park is not just a park. It’s a celebration of what we’ve been able to do."

