Public Employee Press
Local 1505 pushes Parkhouse rehab
By DIANE S. WILLIAMS
Once dilapidated Brooklyn parkhouse underwent a major rehab to rival any on HGTV’s Fixer Upper after the union pulled its members from the unsafe site.
Last summer seasonal Parks workers in Local 1505 opened the storage area of Bensonhurst Parkhouse. Rats the size of cats, they said, ran out. One worker called the site a “House of Horrors.”
The union agreed.
“It was a too dangerous for anyone to be in there. My members did not feel safe,” said Local 1505 President Dilcy Benn of the crumbling and vermin infested building. She and union leaders pressed the Parks Dept. to clean up the filthy and hazardous site.
Thanks to the union’s vigilance, Parks completed renovations on the Bensonhurst Parkhouse in April. Union leaders joined Parks officials on the walkthrough inspection.
“This place went from deplorable and dangerous to something like the Taj Mahal,” Benn said of the transformation. Her complaints aired last July on a CBS News investigative report.
Union gets results
After the TV report exposed the filthy conditions, the Parks Dept. shuttered the building and ordered a cleanup.
Last summer when Benn and Blue Collar Council Rep Richard Kadlub visited the parkhouse, what they saw and smelled, Kudlub said, “was nauseating. Huge rats lay dead and dying in the grass near the entry. Exposed wiring and extension cords hung across doorways. Water damage from a fire that tore through the building had rotted the basement and rusted the radiators. Rat droppings were everywhere.”
One side of the Bensonhurst Parkhouse has public restrooms and a rec room used by seniors from the neighborhood. The other side has lockers, a kitchen where Parks employees eat, and a storage room for maintenance tools and equipment.
“As bad as you can imagine, seeing it was worse,” Kadlub added. “Broken windows, black mold growing up basement walls; the rec center and bathroom walls had holes where vermin ran in and out. The men’s room entrance was collapsing and huge rats’ nests hung overhead.”
At the April walkthrough Benn and Parks officials agreed the change is like night and day: The overhaul included new walls, lighting and ventilation, new windows and upgraded bathrooms. There is a brand new kitchen. The entire parkhouse, inside and out, is freshly painted.
