Special events planned for Rocky Point park opening

John Howell
Posted 10/16/14

“Come with your family…come with your friends.”

That’s the invitation the state is making as it reopens 82 acres of the former Rocky Point amusement park on Saturday, Oct. 25.

The …

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Special events planned for Rocky Point park opening

Posted

“Come with your family…come with your friends.”

That’s the invitation the state is making as it reopens 82 acres of the former Rocky Point amusement park on Saturday, Oct. 25.

The daylong event will include an opportunity to see most of the property, enjoy music, buy food, see what planners envision as options for the park and hear what officials have to say about the historic occasion.

To get a jump-start on the occasion, the Department of Environmental Management will host an official ceremony at the park featuring the governor, elected officials and individuals who worked to save the site as open space. The ceremony begins at 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 24.

DEM Director Janet Coit visited the park last week.

“I got shivers,” she said Tuesday. “It’s so beautiful…breathtaking…I just couldn’t believe it.”

She credited preservation of the park to the stewardship of so many, adding that Gov. Lincoln Chafee made acquisition and reopening the park a priority of his administration.

The reopening marks the near completion of the park cleanup. While the cottages of Rocky Beach have been razed, debris piles continue to be sorted and removed. Until that is completed, the area will be closed to the public, Lisa Primiano, director of DEM’s Land Acquisition and Conservation Program, said Friday.

But that section of the park that holds memories for so many has been transformed and will be open to wander through, although grass is just pushing up in some sections and has yet to germinate in others. Gone are the world’s largest shore dinner hall, the Palladium and the Windjammer. Open are vistas of the bay and the bridges to the south.

There are remnants – reminders – of the property’s nearly 150-year-long role as a summer place to bring the family, ride the rides, listen to music, or simply enjoy the bay breeze and watch the sea gulls dive for scraps at the takeout window for clamcakes and chowder. Visitors will recognize the iconic arch and the stanchions for the Skyride that transect the southern end of the park. Now cleared of vines and brush, the stanchion for the swing ride, one of the park’s older rides, stands stark like an oilrig against the sky. The clearing has also opened to view what remains of one of the park’s earlier structures, the observatory tower.

Hundreds of tons of concrete – foundations to buildings and rides – were removed from the site. In fact, Primiano said, there was more concrete than estimated, which pushed up the $2.4 million bid for the park cleanup. She said that has been partially offset by a reduction in hazardous materials expected to be on the property.

The cleanup of the amusement park side of the property was under a tight 75-day schedule that required HK&S Construction of North Kingstown to work on some weekends and had heavy equipment breaking up concrete and pulling steel beams, twisted tracks, cables and metal sheets from mountains of debris.

Throwing a wrench into the schedule, vandals hit the site on Aug. 12, smashing the windows and damaging the controls to more than a dozen pieces of heavy equipment.

A portion of the park’s extensive parking lot remains and will be used for both events. Vehicle access will be from Palmer Avenue. Gates to that road, which served as the park’s exit, will be closed after the two days and for an indefinite period until cleanup of Rocky Beach is completed and a plan put in place.

Working with the city, which took the first step to preserve the 124-acre amusement park with the purchase of 41 shore acres from the Small Business Administration in 2007, a tent will be erected near the site of the Palladium. The city’s department of economic development and tourism, as well as the Rocky Point Foundation, the non-profit that spearheaded efforts for a 2010 state bond issue to purchase the remaining park land from the BSA, are also working on planning the two opening events.

The Veterans Memorial High School band will perform at the Friday ceremony. According to Principal Gerald Habershaw, the band has been practicing the Rocky Point jingle and is expected to play the familiar tune and the national anthem.

Thanks to the efforts of the city’s department of tourism, a number of food trucks will be at the park on Saturday. The department has also worked with the Rocky Point Foundation in booking the 12-piece Night Life Orchestra to perform for the opening Saturday and into the afternoon.

The foundation will have commemorative t-shirts for sale, as well as a limited number of plates rescued from the shore dinner hall. And the Rhode Island School of Design, which considered possible developments of the park, will have displays and seek public input.

In the short range, Primiano said DEM plans to use $450,000 in recreational funds to develop a “flat” walking path that would link with the city path, and in wetland sections would include some boardwalks. She said there would be a secondary, more challenging path that would follow the ridgeline of the park’s rocky terrain. She is hopeful the design for those features could be completed by the end of this year.

“We want people to go out there and use it,” she said of the park.

Coit sees the cleanup as the second phase of three phases for the park that started with its acquisition from the SBA. She sees construction of a pier and a path and the design and approval of a master plan as the third phase.

For the moment, she exalts in the openness and expanse of the park.

“It’s a beautiful, special place,” she said. “Let’s enjoy the emptiness.”

Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, likewise, is looking forward to the reopening of the full park. Calling the reopening “a dream come true” and a top priority of his administration, he said, “It is only fitting that it was accomplished this year – 50 years after the late senator and governor John H. Chafee voiced his vision for a Bay Island Park system. Fifty years later, it is a reality. There were days I wondered if it would happen, but through hard work and determination, it is now a reality.”

Avedisian went on to thank Governor Chafee, Coit, the state’s federal delegation, the Rhode Island General Assembly and the Warwick City Council.

“Many hands made this work successful, and I am grateful to all of them. City employees Dan Geagan, Bill DePasquale and David Picozzi need special thanks, along with recently retired chief of staff and planning director Mark Carruolo. They endured countless speeches from me about preserving Rocky Point for future generations,” he said.

“This property is unique and holds a special place in many hearts. It is comforting to know that it is now open and in the public domain to be used for generations to come. Well done,” he added.

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