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<br />Apri/10, 2006 Golden Gardens Park Public Forum <br />Testimony <br /> <br />Hello, I am Mary Monette at 3261 Richard Avenue in the Bethel <br />neighborhood and I am the co-chair of Friends of Golden <br />Gardens Park. <br /> <br />Friends of Golden Gardens Park began less than one month <br />ago at a meeting of the Active Bethel Citizens. Three mothers <br />whose boys drowned in the northeast pond spoke to us about <br />the unsafe conditions at this park and their determination to <br />prevent more deaths. I went there with the assumption that <br />these boys weren't supervised or couldn't swim, what I learned <br />was that because of the inaccessibility of the park it was not <br />frequented by many adults and was an unregulated haven for <br />kids. <br /> <br />Friends of Golden Gardens Park are a very dynamic, cohesive <br />group that has made outstanding progress. Our goal is to <br />prevent the drowning of one more child in these ponds and to <br />make this a park both the Bethel area and the city can be proud <br />of. After our initial ABC meeting we met at the park with Johnny <br />Medlin, the director of parks and open spaces. The <br />inaccessibility of this park for rescuers and adults is a huge <br />factor in the previous drownings thus a one lane bridge is to be <br />built by the end of summer. Because one of our main goals is <br />to increase adult traffic in the park Johnny agreed to build a <br />temporary footbridge over the canal, install picnic tables & <br />garbage cans - all of which he has already done. <br /> <br />C0 <br />