Why Should Delaware Care?
Residents along the Route 9 corridor in New Castle County, an area with increased environmental and health concerns, have taken the care of their parks into their own hands. The workforce development pilot program may serve as an example for other Delaware communities that are similarly afflicted by environmental issues.
Community-Powered Journalism
This story was developed following discussions with the public at a Spotlight Delaware Pop-Up Newsroom stop at the Route 9 Library and Innovation Center.
Turhan Boardley walked through his childhood park, hauling trimmed tree branches through the community that raised him.
The plastic playground glistened in New Castle’s Surratte Park behind Boardley as a handful of older women scooted past him — the Surratte Pool water exercise class was about to start.
A riding lawnmower droned on in the background as it sheared the nearby football field.
Boardley grew up in Dunleith, the historic Route 9 community surrounding the well-kept park where he now stood. As a child, Boardley recalled the disheveled park accumulating trash for months at a time.
Today, it’s different. His sons now play in the same park that he once did.
Boardley helped make it happen.
“This is our community,” Boardley said. “I want to keep it clean.”
Turhan Boardley, a Dunleith resident, now works to upkeep the park where his sons play and where he once played too. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JOSE IGNACIO CASTANEDA PEREZ
Boardley is a part of the Park Pilot Project, a workforce development initiative largely composed of residents who help upkeep parks in the Route 9 corridor. About a dozen project employees trim, clean, cut, mow and oversee the maintenance of six parks.
The initiative employs residents who provide a level of care exclusive to people who call the communities’ their homes. Urban green spaces have been proven to provide environmental benefits, such as offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, as well as health benefits to residents.
The cleanup efforts have specifically revitalized a stretch of three parks connected by a mile-long walking trail, encouraging residents of surrounding communities. Oakmont, Surratte and Rose Hill Gardens parks previously had a reputation for drugs, violence and blight among neighbors, leading some residents to avoid passing through the parks entirely.
Now, the environment has changed alongside residents’ views. Drugs and shootings have decreased as the parks have become more known for basketball games and birthday parties.
“People can see that our area can be a beautiful place,” said James Parker, an Oakmont resident and community advocate. “It has to fall back on us to keep it up that way, but that’s a good thing.”
Neighbors stepped up to maintain their parks that had received lackluster attention and care from New Castle County, residents say. The county parks maintenance crews would often disregard fallen trees or branches and just cut the surrounding grass.
Park pilot workers recently cleared the mile-long paved walking trail, which connects four communities along the Route 9 corridor. Fallen trees had blocked the trail for three months after a heavy storm hit the community.
Pilot park partnership workers cleared these fallen trees from a walking path in Surratte Park in New Castle. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JOSE IGNACIO CASTANEDA PEREZ
“We have 251 parks in New Castle County, it’s the nature of the job that there’s always grass that needs to be cut, there’s often a basketball hoop that needs to be fixed, or a pickleball court that needs to be put up,” New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer told Spotlight Delaware.
The pilot project recently landed a $10,000 contract with New Castle County to maintain the parks, according to the county. The pilot program is also funded through a $3 million Bezos Earth Fund grant to restore eight Route 9 parks, spanning 300 acres.
“It has to be a crusade, it can’t be a mission,” said Joshua Brown, the head of the pilot project and director of youth prevention and economic development with the Route 9 Community Development Corporation.
“A lot of people do care, but you cannot wait for someone to fix it.”
‘This is a village now‘
James Parker felt he missed out.
Growing up in Oakmont, Parker looked forward to taking part in the summer youth worker program when he was old enough. The teenagers in the program helped maintain the community parks.
A year before he could enroll, the program was cut and Parker was left out. He eventually moved away to Atlanta and would return to visit his mother in the community, seeing the parks’ downturn over the years.
“It was kind of like God is just saying to me, ‘You didn’t pass it on, you never passed the torch,’” Parker said while walking the park trail on a recent morning.
The connection between generations was severed with his departure. When he returned to Oakmont, he would show the community what he hadn’t before. Residents on one side of the park would often use the exterior streets, and prolong their trip, to reach their destination on the other side of the park. They didn’t want to cross through.
Parker first began picking trash and debris from the community parks after he returned home. He eventually began holding community events in the parks and engaging with the communities’ youth.
“(Parker) always took time out since I was a kid,” said Dale Reed, a lifelong Route 9 resident and community health worker with the New Castle Prevention Coalition — now known as the Route 9 CDC.
“He ushered us in instead of just gatekeeping.”
Reed recalled being a young man running around the parks and littering. Parker then introduced himself to Reed and other teens, instilling the importance of keeping their community clean.
Reed’s generation is now taking the reins from what Parker started, Reed said. The connection between Parker, Reed and his children’s generation has been reestablished.
“This is a village now,” Reed said. “I’ve never seen this much togetherness, as far as like, generation wise.”
Antwon Johnson said he’s just trying to make the community look better as he cut the football field in New Castle’s Surratte Park. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JOSE IGNACIO CASTANEDA PEREZ
The initial public-private partnership between New Castle County and the pilot project is slated to last through the end of the year with hopes of continuing after, according to Meyer. The program will hopefully allow Route 9 residents to transition into full-time county jobs in the future, Meyer added.
Today, Parker walks the three-park trail every morning, often posting a Facebook Live of his stroll. He can recall the regular residents who he sees frequent the parks daily.
Overgrow and low-hanging branches have been cut, establishing a clear line of sight from one park to the next. The grass is often neat and collapsed trees don’t block paths any longer.
“I had to come back and do it, and not because of community service, but servicing the community,” Parker said.
Parker finished his mile-long walk in the park as the day began to warm. The park project members continued trimming branches and cutting grass.
The morning was concluding, but they’d all be back soon.
The parks are in their hands now.
Call to Action
Take a stroll through the mile-long trail that connects Oakmont Park, Surratte Park and Rose Hill Gardens Park in New Castle along Route 9.
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