The black bags were finally filled with trash. The grass trimmed. The overflowing trash bin cleared. The checkmarks made for a productive cleanup at Williamsbridge Oval Park.

Yet credit for the several cleanup jobs goes to the handful of volunteers living near the park. In the space of several months, the group has taken it upon itself to do the work of the agency, whose track record for reliable cleanliness is spotty as of late. George Lunney of Norwood wasn’t taking it lying down.

“We’re not getting any assistance whatsoever from the complaints we made with either 311 or with Parks Department officials directly, including Liam Kavanagh who’s the deputy commissioner,” said Lunney.

As residents filed 14 complaints linked to park conditions with 311, Lunney spent the last few months haranguing the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) for consistent service of the park. “I emailed [Kavanagh] and contacted him several times and his office about broken items in the park, in the playground areas, the trash that’s everywhere. And I said, ‘We do have videotapes and photographs.’”

Lunney did score a victory seeing DPR replace the worn-out American flag for a new one.

The group has ventured out on hands and knees several times, exhausted over the agency’s slow response to maintain the luster of the park. Settled in the heart of Norwood, Williamsbridge Oval Park represents one of the neighborhood’s prized treasures.

And even as DPR has deployed parks inspectors to examine conditions of the park, even ranking it passable in May, evidence of a park overdue for a cleanup persists. Among the more unsightly elements was a torn bag full of discarded clothes, damp from a weekend rainstorm. It had been found at the northern entrance of the park by the Reservoir Keeper’s House (home of the Norwood News). Park crews did haul out mounds of litter on July 9, but the clothes remained.

Elizabeth Quaranta, president of Friends of Mosholu Parkland, a volunteer group that maintains nearby Mosholu Parkway, was also struck by the park’s untidiness as of late. She too has found then park in poor shape as of late. “Mosholu [Parkway’s] cleaner than the Oval,” said Quaranta. For Lunney, the park was in a better state last year.

Quaranta’s also found cleanup crews shirk their duties when she approached them about the state of the park. “I was told, ‘Well, I’m not doing that now,’” said Quaranta of the cleanup crews. In one instance, she was told by a crew member that they wouldn’t be “doing that right now,” adding they only got “another half hour” of work.

For its part, DPR maintains it has given the park special attention, deploying extra personnel and even giving the park a passable grade after it was inspected in May.

In a statement, a spokesperson for DPR said the agency “hear[s] the concerns and Bronx Borough Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa is actively conducting spot checks at Williamsbridge Oval for the foreseeable future to ensure the park’s maintenance meets our expectations.” An effort is underway to determine how to properly spend DPR’s increased budget.

After noticing the pile of clothes still left behind, Quaranta’s group went out to gather the clothes.

Two days later a squad of parks employees showed up for a massive cleanup job.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.