Hello, all! I attended the Spring Check-In Meeting with Eric Greene, Park Manager of our district, and Mike Lavery, our helpful contact at Partnership for Parks. Here are a few things I learned:

- Eric Greene suggested, as an interim solution, that we could work with Parks to "break up the surface" and add gravel, as a temporary improvement until we get the resurfacing project we want. It would be an improvement, but only if this interim fix will not hurt our chances at getting a real resurfacing job.

- Mike talked with me more about a meeting with Bill de Blasio. Two or three of us are going to set up a meeting to discuss funding and support for our project.

- I asked Mike Lavery if getting in touch with Marty Markiowitz's office was a good idea and he said yes, so I am going to try to get support from him.

- He also gave me advice about how to formally approach Community Board 6, so I will work on that as well.

- Parks wants to see more volunteers recruited; they will be contacting groups to get our membership numbers and talk about that.

- Not related to the dog run, but I learned that citizens can fill out a request for a tree planting on the Parks website. The city is having a big campaign to plant a million trees in the city. http://www.milliontreesnyc.org/

The other attendees were the Gowanus Dredgers, Sunset Park, Carroll Park, Butterfly Park, Greenwood Playground, Cobble Hill Park, Old Stone House, and Coffey Park, which is just over the expressway in Red Hook. Molly from Friends of Coffey Park was very nice and there might be ways we can work with them in the future.

If you are interested in getting more involved, please write me at andiattack at gmail dot com.