The track and field at East 6th Street of the East River Park will be closed from July 5 through mid-November to renovate the track and put in lights.

Many community residents feel that Summer and Fall without the facility is simply too long for our community to do without such an important resource.

We would like to review the parameters of the project planning to see if it is possible to delay the field/track closure and work on other parts of the renovation first.

To help keep our park open:

Please attend the local Community Board 3 meeting on Tuesday June 27 at 6:30 pm at PS 20 (@ Essex and East Houston Streets) and tell the Community Board and Parks Dept that we want the closure of the track and field to be minimized and delayed as long as possible!

Kenyan-native and Dutch citizen Lornah Kiplagat captured seventh place in the 2004 ING New York City Marathon with a time of 2:28:21 winning the ING Run for Something Better race within a race, raising money for East River Park in Manhattan and the High Altitude Training Center, a training club for young girls that she founded in her native Kenya.

To whom it may concern:
It would be great if you could allow people to train on the 6th ST track through the fall so they can train for the ING NYC Marathon. I was disappointed to hear that you are closing this facility through New York's most popular running season. I really hope they don't close the track to stop people training in this area of New York. It is hard enough to train in a city like this without closing this track:why not do the renovations in November when far less people use this facility ?

Best regards,
Lornah Kiplagat.

We are hoping to get the Community Board to put pressure on the Parks Dept in order to get the closure of the track/field portion of the E 6th St facility delayed as long as possible. Currently everything except the exercise part will be closed form July 5- Mid- November.

We are suggesting that the project leave the track/field open and work on them as late as possible in the Fall, beginning instead with the other portions of the project ( field house/bleachers, etc,.

We need to get people to come to the next CB 3 meeting to be held at PS 20 ( Essex St and East Houston) next Tuesday 6/27 at 6:30 pm. The public can sign up to speak, for 3 minutes each.

If we overwhelm the meeting w/ runners/soccer players and other park users/LES residents we can make a real impact.

For more info please contact: lisabdonlan@hotmail.com