EDITORIAL

A Rocky Point Park invitation

Posted 10/21/14

When Rocky Point Park opens this week, visitors will find a changed landscape from the amusement park they knew prior to 1995 or the piles of debris, derelict buildings and overgrown landscape it …

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EDITORIAL

A Rocky Point Park invitation

Posted

When Rocky Point Park opens this week, visitors will find a changed landscape from the amusement park they knew prior to 1995 or the piles of debris, derelict buildings and overgrown landscape it became in the last 19 years.

It is an open and new landscape of gently sloping hills with vistas of Narragansett Bay and the distant Pell and Jamestown Bridges on the horizon.

New grass pushes up from the graded landscape, and those who remember the amusement park will be able to point to where flume rides once ended in a giant splash, the House of Horrors, cave-live, backed up to the hillside or the World’s Largest Shore Dinner Hall looked down on the park pier. There are vestiges of the park, including the arch and the stanchions of the Skyride.

Not all the cleanup is completed, and that section of the 83 acres acquired by the state known as Rocky Beach will remain off limits until the foundations of about 50 summer cottages are completely leveled and a giant pile of debris removed. When that’s finished in another couple of weeks, the fence separating the state land from the 41 shore acres bought by the city in 2007 will come down – and all of Rocky Point will be open to the public again.

This week’s activities start a new chapter for the park.

The book is closed on the many private plans to develop the site for luxury housing, and the years of bankruptcy court proceedings and negotiations that culminated with voter approval in 2010 of funds to buy the property and finally the purchase agreement with the court-appointed receiver, the Small Business Administration.

Two opening events are planned this week.

On Friday, elected officials and those who played roles in securing the property will congregate at the site of the Palladium for a ceremony including remarks by Governor Lincoln Chafee, Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian, the state’s congressional delegation and state representatives. The Veterans High School marching band will play the national anthem and, as we have been told, play the Rocky Point jingle.

The public is invited, although a more extended public opening is planned for Saturday. Park gates will be open Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Again, there will be music along with a brief speaking program at about 11:30 a.m. There will be food trucks, displays of park memorabilia, the sale of commemorative t-shirts and a display assembled by Rhode Island School of Design students as to how the property might be developed.

But the true opportunity is for people to explore the new park: to climb up into the rocks, to find the stonewall observatory tower and to feel the expanse and dream of the future for the state’s newest park.

As the Rocky Point jingle goes: “Bring your family…bring your friends.” This is Rhode Island’s park.

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