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Residents, visitors drawn to Verona Park
Aside from the spray of the fountain mist bouncing off of Verona Lake, there was not a sound to be heard on a sunny July Thursday at Verona Park. In the distance, a couple hovered leisurely in foot-paddle boats, carelessly zigzagging through the sun’s reflection off of the lake. Joggers breezed by on the footpath and a threatening rain cloud drifted off into the horizon.
Another perfect day was in the making as Jimmy and Anna Brooks of Bloomfield relaxed along the lakeside. Waiting patiently for a fish to bite, the two explained what it is that attracts visitors from neighboring towns to Verona Park.
“It’s relaxing over here,” said Jimmy Brooks. “I come for the peace and quiet, to get away from the house and take it easy. It’s a nice atmosphere and that’s why we come here.”
The Brooks’ presence at the park is no threat to the monthly stocked, state-supplied fish population.
“I’m a catch and release guy,’” Brooks added. “I throw ‘em right back in.”
Verona Park has hosted an abundance of visitors this summer and it is the size of the park, as the Brooks noted, that enables so many visitors to come.
Spanning 54.32 acres and enclosing a 13-acre lake, Verona Park is the fifth largest park in the Essex County Park system. While it can accommodate the numbers, the available options are what attract visitors.
Late afternoon welcomed the pop of a tennis ball darting back and forth between rackets. Sixteen-year-old Verona resident Jimmy Sammon was enjoying a competitive afternoon of tennis with friends Andrei Beinder and Rick Distefano.
“It’s a nice park over here,” Beinder said. “There are lots of trees, a nice lake and lots of things to do.”
While Sammon admitted that tennis is not a ritual activity for the three, he does attend the park regularly.
“I come here a lot to jog,” Sammon said. “It’s nice because you have a lot of stuff to look at when you run here. Because of the size of the park, you’re not seeing the same things over and over again.”
The tight maintenance and constant improvement upon the park keep guests content with the condition. Notably, the tennis courts were resurfaced in 2005 and Verona residents Tess and Julia Langan say that the difference is palpable.
“[The tennis courts] are always open,” Julia Langan said. “The country re-did the courts a few years ago and there are always people using them to play tennis. They really spruced the entire park up. The plants [by the lake] are new and they also planted a lot more trees here.”
When famed landscape designer Frederick Law Olsted was commissioned in the 1930s to design what is now Verona Park, it was his vision that the site would be brimming with trees and plant life. Recently, according to Marvin Friedman, president of the Verona Park Conservancy, there has been a collaborative effort by the conservancy, the county and volunteers to realize that vision.
“The conservancy is a volunteer organization that is working with Essex County to maintain and improve the facilities at Verona Park,” Friedman said. “Some of our volunteers have been planting trees in the children’s garden and by the fitness area to provide shade.”
“Briefly what makes Verona Park special,” Friedman added, “is that it has a nice lake, it compact, accessible to everybody and we do our best to keep it up.”
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