Victor Hunt, 12, of Woonsocket, jumps across a temporary river as the spigots are opened to refill ‘Social Ocean’ at World War II Veterans Memorial Park in the city Friday.   Call photo/Ernest A. Brown

By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — State lawmakers, city officials and the state Department of Environmental Management said Friday they would form a “creative partnership” to keep World War II Veterans Memorial State Park from closing this summer even though there’s no money in the state budget to operate the park.

“That’s the word of the day — partnership,” said DEM Director W. Michael Sullivan, as water flowed anew into the city’s only public swimming area, just behind him. “It’s going to take new, committed and creative partnerships to make sure facilities like this stay open.”
DEM announced this spring that it would remove its groundskeepers and lifeguards from the park, and stop filling the chlorinated pond, to absorb massive cuts to its budget, while offering to sell the facility to the city for $1.
City officials countered that they couldn’t afford the upkeep, joining a vocal chorus of opposition to the closing of the park from state lawmakers, senior citizens and veterans groups. Hundreds of signatures were collected on a petition decrying DEM’s pullout.
Speaking during a press briefing at the park pavilion, state Rep. Jon Brien (D-Woonsocket) proclaimed Friday’s “grand reopening” of the facility a major victory for the campaign. He said it proves that the political will to keep the park operating is at least as important as financial resources.
“We took a very tenacious approach to the situation and let the right people know this was a vital resource for the city,” Brien said. “It was a political solution to a seemingly monetary problem.”
In addition to Brien and Sullivan, State Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt (D-Woonsocket), state senators Marc A. Cote (D-Woonsocket, North Smithfield) and Roger Picard (D-Woonsocket, Cumberland) were on hand to hail the park-saving breakthrough. Administration/Public Works Director Michael A. Annarummo and designees of House Speaker William Murphy also joined in, while a throng of seniors and veterans looked on, cheering the good news.
“I think this is a gift to the citizens of the city,” Annarummo said. “If you just ride up and down Clinton Street, right now, you’ll realize the importance of this park.”
Annarummo said the park would be open for the traditional July Fourth celebration with a big display of fireworks, and the pond would probably be fit for swimming by then. Also safe is the seasonal “Movies in the Park” series.
“It goes to show you what can happen when the people of Woonsocket feel like they have their backs against the wall and they’re facing a challenge,” said Cote.
But it’s unlikely there will be a full-scale rejuvenation of the park, at least not anytime soon.
Speaking after the press briefing, Sullivan said the details of the partnership to keep the park open are still evolving. There was no new funding for DEM in the state budget, and the only new resources for running the park are $10,000 committed by Mayor Susan D. Menard, plus groundskeeping help from the highway division and the Woonsocket Housing Authority. DEM had said it costs $150,000 to $200,000 a year to run the park.
 Sullivan said DEM had pledged to keep the bathrooms stocked with toilet paper, maintain the changing rooms, pick up the trash, chlorinate the swimming area and provide other basics. DEM will absorb the costs for those essentials until the General Assembly reconvenes to pass a supplementary budget next year, at which point House Speaker William Murphy has promised to replenish whatever debt DEM accrues as a result of running the park.
“There is no new money,” said Sullivan. “There still is no money for World War II Park. My commitment is to keep that base infrastructure here.”
DEM normally kept two full-time groundskeepers at the park, as well as seasonal lifeguards, but whether any workers on the state payroll will return this season is unclear.
Sullivan said he would open a maintenance position for the park, but filling it could get bogged down in compliance with rules of Council 94, the union governing park workers. And Sullivan said there is already a shortage of qualified lifeguards to meet the state’s needs.
DEM would likely take a “swim-at-your-own-risk approach” to running the swimming area, at least for now, Sullivan said.
If anyone was in the spirit of the new partnership, however, it was Sullivan, who personally spent much of the day Friday mowing the grass around the 12-acre park. At one point, he told spectators that “it was with a heavy heart” that DEM had been forced to embark on what he called “a budgetary retraction” from the facility.
The fruits of the partnership were already plainly visible Friday. Not only was the grass cropped back from its previously knee-high level, but there was no longer any trace of the fast-food wrappers, plastic cups and other debris that had come to pockmark the grounds. And spigots were churning fresh water into the stagnant, depleted swimming area known as Social Ocean for the first time since last year.
Ernest Frappier, president of the United Veterans Council, said he was pleased by the results of the new agreement, but he was still worried the state will eventually back away from its commitments at World War II Park. After all, DEM has been trying to sell the park to the city for some time.
“Every year this seems to happen to our park,” Frappier said. “So we’ll have to keep a vigilant eye to see what happens.”
But Val Lambert, one of the elderly spectators who gathered in the pavilion to watch the press briefing, applauded the news of the park’s reopening. A resident of nearby St. Germain Manor, Lambert, 86, says the park is a conveniently located retreat, especially during the summertime.
“It’s nice and cool in here compared to the city,” said Lambert. “I’m surprised they ever closed it.”