After being turned down for grant money to renovate the ailing Gagliardo Park for the second time in as many years, Rye officials seem eager to commit city funds for renovations to the park anyway.
If grants continue to fall through, funding to pay for the park rehab will be pulled from the city’s capital reserves, said City Manager Brian Shea.
Mayor Josh Nathan, who was recently sworn into office along with three council members, said the park’s makeover is on his agenda. He pledged to begin planning the redevelopment of Gagliardo, even if grant money doesn’t materialize.
“The incoming council are all aware of the need, and it’s certainly on my list of things that I want to address as soon as we can,” Nathan said.
Hopes for a revival at the city-owned park have rested on failed attempts at securing money from the state. Rye applied for a $1 million grant through the state Municipal Parks and Recreation Grant Program in May, but learned in August the application was denied, according to Shea.
It was the park’s second grant rejection.
The city estimates that fully renovating Gagliardo will cost about $1.6 million.
Rye previously applied for funding through the state Environmental Protection Fund Program in 2023 for updates that would have included the city’s first ADA accessible structures — buildings designed for those with disabilities.
Angelo Scarfone, 33, who has had a front row seat to Gagliardo’s deterioration for over 20 years, describes the park now as a “dump.”
The content creator has lived next to the 2.5-acre park in Rye’s Little Dublin neighborhood his entire life.
“Over the years I’ve watched parks around the city get improved, renovated, celebrated,” Scarfone, a graduate of Rye High School, told the City Council last month. “But when it comes to Gagliardo Park, what I’ve seen is the complete opposite.”
The park, located at 31 High St., which includes a basketball court, baseball field, playground, and picnic shelter, has not had renovations in many years.
The park’s condition, for some residents, represents a pattern of neglect toward the blue-collar Little Dublin neighborhood on the western side of the city.
“Unfortunately, it does seem like Rye treats that neighborhood sort of like the other side of the train track,” said Phil Turney, who grew up near Gagliardo and now lives in Mamaroneck. “It has been a lower-income neighborhood for a long time.”
Scarfone also framed it as an equity issue.
“Kids on every side of the city deserve the same level of investment and care,” he said. “This is not just about swings and slides, it’s about what we’re communicating to our kids and our families, basically saying that my side of the neighborhood deserves less.”
Andora Collymore, a Rye resident who lives near the park, said she used to walk half an hour with a stroller to Rye Recreation Park on the other side of town because Gagliardo wasn’t suitable for her children.
“I would go [to Gagliardo] with my kids to try to teach them biking, but … [the surface] is not even,” said Collymore, noting the park’s numerous potholes. “It’s not really safe.”
Proposed improvements that appeared in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan in 2018 included new bathrooms and fencing, stormwater infrastructure, better field space, an ADA-accessible playground, and walking paths. But that plan never gained any traction.
Gagliardo, which opened in 1950, is named after World War II soldier and former Rye resident Samuel Gagliardo, who was killed in action. His home once stood on what is the park’s grounds today.
The Gagliardo family has publicly advocated for park improvements.
Kelly Mitten, whose family history with the park dates back to the 1950s when her grandfather played baseball there, recently took visiting relatives on a “a trip down memory lane” to the park. She said they found trash, lighters, and “other unsafe items scattered throughout.”
And Rick McCabe, chairman of the city Recreation Commission, said residents have made their desires clear.
“Of all our parks, Gagliardo is certainly next on the list in terms of priorities,” he said.
Residents like Scarfone, though, doubt Gagliardo’s full worth will ever be realized.
“Gagliardo Park shouldn’t be the park that we quietly accept as good enough. It should be a point of pride,” he said. “It feels like the community is being told ‘be happy with less.’”
