By Pam Hersh Special Writer
Thank goodness, no one stopped to gawk at how weird I looked.
At 6 a.m. a week ago Tuesday in 85 degree heat, I was standing inside of the newly renovated Harrison Street Park, which is still closed to the public. With a watering hose nozzle in my hand and the remainder of the watering hose tangled around my legs, and wearing a Joe Cocker baseball hat, muddy sneakers, jogging tights and a wrinkled, sweaty T-shirt, I did a little rain dance-rain prayer.
One of about a dozen Harrison Street Park volunteer waterers, I was giving “my” plantings a prayerful drenching, because I was going to be unable to water for five days.
Several of the Harrison Street Park groupies, whose watering responsibilities had been organized by Martha Reinhart, had exchanged e- mails reflecting panic that our various vacation schedules would scuttle our efforts to sustain the life of the $30,000 worth of new plantings in the park.
My concern was so intense that my usual anxiety dream of missing a final exam was replaced by the dead plantings dream. My assigned section of plantings would be the only one to expire from the heat due to my inability to maneuver the 100-foot monster hose, which in my hands always was a mess of snarls and knots.
Instead of causing angst, parks are supposed to be like a Seurat or Monet painting — refuges from stress, recreational havens, places that bring together people of all ages, from the energetic toddler to the hip/knee-replaced waddler.
But the process of creating this Seurat spot on Harrison Street would be more analogous to a work by Homer, specifically, “The Odyssey.”
When I first moved to the neighborhood more than 30 years ago, people were talking about the need to renovate Harrison Street park. In the late 1990s,the issue was raised by Borough Council, which was distracted by another Harrison Street issue — the Millstone Bypass/Penns Neck Project. The park without vocal neighborhood activists fell to the B-list of projects.
Then six years ago, the Harrison Street neighbors began stirring in earnest again, and newly elected Borough Councilman Andrew Koontz took on the challenge of finding a way to refurbish the park.
Reportedly, the park will open in two to three weeks — after an odyssey lasting years and surviving all sorts of harrowing challenges, such as dozens of meetings in which residents and elected officials debated the details of design and equipment; the cataloging of all existing plants and trees; a horrific windstorm felling 11 huge trees; a Facebook page; hundreds of e- mails among neighbors, and a $485,500 capital expense.
The question is: Can the park survive the one last challenge lurking among the trees and shrubs — the controversy over the color of the basketball court. A contingent of neighbors wants the basketball court — which was painted a clay red, allegedly without the input of the neighbors — to be repainted a more park-like green so as to blend in with the environment. Others love the deep red — as probably would have Monet or Seurat. But neither Monet or Seurat lives next to the park, from where the main source of objection is arising.
The Harrison Street court color conundrum reminds me of the boulder brouhaha among the Pineys on Pine Street, who were divided about the aesthetic and safety of the big boulders placed in the David Bradford Memorial Park. The no-boulders camp won the battle, but the stress left its mark for a while on the Pine Street ambiance.
I have observed. however, that the Pine Street park after a couple of years has become the haven that everyone envisioned. It is crowded with Pineys — plus townies, who buy take-out meals on Nassau Street and wander down to the park to escape the crowds.
Unfortunately, I learned that I am destined never to escape the watchful eyes of others. As I was watering my patch of plantings on Sunday afternoon, someone walked by and made two comments to me: “Your rain dance worked (it had rained on Saturday). And, by the way, where did you get the Joe Cocker hat?”
A longtime resident of Princeton, Pam Hersh is vice president for government and community affairs with Princeton HealthCare System. She is a former managing editor of The Princeton Packet.
