Mirschel Park in Hempstead Village lands $15 million state grant for new community center

New York State awarded Hempstead Village a $15 million grant for the planned renovation of Mirschel Park to help pay for a new community center and other improvements there.

The grant will pay for more than half of the expected $27 million cost of the project.

The funding “is going to help us tremendously in achieving our goal to build a park facility, a brand-new park facility over there in Mirschel Park,” Village Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr. said in an interview. “We wanted to make sure that area that has been forgotten for so long really got an upgrade.”

Renovating the park has been on the agenda of village officials for years. In 2013, a new playground was installed with the help of outside funding and volunteers. In 2020, the trustees considered a plan to issue $7 million in bonds to finance a new community center and basketball court but Hobbs told Newsday that the trustees decided instead to take a more comprehensive approach to renovating the park in response to community feedback. 

The planned renovations include the construction of a community center with an indoor basketball court, a rooftop garden, a new playground, splash area, pickleball court and an outdoor track around the park, with exercise stations.

"We know that community centers are not just buildings, they are anchors in communities," Dormitory Authority of the State of New York president Robert Rodriguez said at a news conference at the park Thursday. 

The grant was awarded under the Building Recreational Infrastructure for Communities, Kids and Seniors, or NY BRICKS, program, a state program administered by DASNY.

Rodriguez said community centers are places where "kids play safe, seniors stay active and engaged, and people of all walks of life can receive the essential services that they need to make life more affordable, to help them to achieve their goals and dreams." 

Fayth Vaughn-Shavuo, executive director of the P.E.A.C.E. Afterschool Program Inc., which uses Mirschel Park, said in an interview that the new building and renovated park will benefit the dozens of children in the after-school program and summer camp. 

"We use the park regularly during the summer and sometimes it's too hot to play outside," Vaughn-Shavuo said. "Having the indoor facilities for basketball . . . will be really helpful."

One big improvement will be the building of bathrooms, she said. Children in the after-school program have to walk five minutes back to the nonprofit's facilities to use the bathroom. 

"It means that students won't have their play or their learning interrupted because they have to leave [Mirschel Park] and then come back," Vaughn-Shavuo said. 

Having an indoor center also means that the after-school program will be able to plan activities without having to worry about the weather. 

"It will be available in inclement weather so that ... we don't have to stay inside and make it a movie day," she said.

Groundbreaking at the park is expected in the spring, Hobbs said.

“We have to remove the existing outdoor basketball courts because they're all cracked up,” Hobbs said. “It's just the prep work just to get everything in order.”

Rodriguez said the building is expected to open in one or two years. 

The project is one of 30 across the state to receive the awards, which total $100 million. Hempstead and New York City were the only recipients of the top award of $15 million.

The program is intended to help fund the building or renovating of community centers by municipalities and nonprofits, according to DASNY. It requires awardees to match 20% of the project costs, and applicants that secure the matching funds in advance are ranked higher in the selection process, according to DASNY.

In June, the village board of trustees voted to issue up to $15 million in bonds to partially pay for the project. The village also has sought private sponsorships to help pay for the project, Hobbs said.

The state also awarded $539,934 to Long Beach to replace an aging HVAC system at the Magnolia Community Center, which has programs for seniors and a child care.