Irish Memorial damaged for nearly a year, no repairs in sight

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Update October 14, 2013- The Irish Memorial is finally being repaired.

July 4, 2013- By Steven E. Greer

On August 12th, 2012, a man in a stolen vehicle, confirmed to be intoxicated, crashed a car into the north wall of the Irish Memorial on River Terrace. The hole has never been repaired and is one of the many items of disrepair throughout the parks.

In response to BatteryPark.TV reporting, the communications team of the BPCA, Anne Fenton and Matt Monahan, appeared before the CB1 meeting on July 2nd to give updates on the repair projects. They failed to address the Irish Memorial, so we asked them.

Anne Fenton was unable to give any dates as to when the repairs would take place. In her usual manner, she was also unable to recall any specifics on the contractor chosen to do the work, (if there even is one), so she confabulated an excuse that the small hole in the wall cannot be repaired because the entire concrete floor to the museum is leaking and needs extensive repairs.

In fact, the concrete basin that holds the soil and plantings of the park had a crack and leaked from the early days of construction. The only consequence is that some rust and soil stains tarnish some of the external walls, but not the section where the car collision created a hole. There is no reason that the hole in the Irish Memorial cannot be repaired separately from the undertaking of excavating the entire soil basin.

A second small repair project still standing incomplete is the West Thames grass field. As a direct result of BatteryPark.TV reporting about the poor construction of the field that did not incorporate drainage, which was the cause for the soggy conditions, the in-house staff of the parks conservancy late last year installed drainage. However, portions of the work at the southern end are still unfinished.

Sources tell us that the BPCA is hiring outside contractors for the work, which is a fundamental departure from the way the parks have operated. In the video, Anne Fenton is seen proudly taking credit for the drainage that was added, and misleading the public indicating that the West Thames field is completed. Her reference to the in-house work was the linear ditches and drainage, not the irrigation and drainage ports still unfinished with picket fences around them.

During the rest of the BPCA update, they gave a litany of excuses for why they still have not repaired the water pumps to the Police Killed-in-Action Memorial or the South Cove. The BPCA duo estimated that those projects could be completed by the end of the year. Stay tuned.