Celebrating ten years since landfill closure
David Bragdon, Director of the Mayor's Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability, addresses the assembled guests at yesterday's event. Photo by Irving Silverstein via the Staten Island Advance.
Yesterday, March 22nd, 2011, marked the ten year anniversary of the last barge of garbage delivered to the Fresh Kills Landfill. To mark the occasion and to celebrate ten years of reclamation and preparation for park development, the NYC Department of Sanitation and the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation jointly hosted a small celebration at the Freshkills Park site. As part of the festivities, a barge of young trees was delivered to the site to symbolically renew the City of New York’s commitment to a more responsible and environmentally sensitive approach to the stewardship and identity of the site. A group of special guests were ferried into the site on a New York Water Taxi, the first passenger vessel ever to dock at Fresh Kills! Remarks were offered by David Bragdon, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning & Sustainability; Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro; Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty, Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and City Council Member Vincent Ignizio. A tree planting ceremony followed. NY1 and the Staten Island Advance ran video coverage; the Advance also ran a nice gallery of images from the morning.
