By Ronn Chesmonde

Mayor Byron Brown today ordered the city’s parks and recreation workers to begin the tedious job of mothballing Delaware Park in time for the 2010 summer season.  The Mayor, speaking at the Rose Garden’s Shakespeare Hill, cited his administration’s continuing efforts to “save money, lower taxes, eliminate crime in addition to the preservation and protection of Buffalo’s cultural assets for future generations.”

Brown said that the current generation has had “plenty of time to enjoy the park, but now our grandchildren need to know that they will be able to enjoy the same park in forty or fifty years.”

The Mayor also referenced the financial savings that will result in the mothballing of the park.  “We are all acutely aware of what’s happening with regard to the serious fiscal problems facing New York State,” said the Mayor.  “I want to be proactive and shut down the crown jewel in our parks system well in advance of the Governor turning his eye toward city-maintained properties.”

New York Governor David Paterson has been roundly criticized for suggesting the closure of state parks in order to maintain the employment of thousands of New Yorkers on the State’s swollen payroll who would otherwise be forced to actually find something productive to do with their miserable lives.

But Mayor Brown stressed that his order to mothball Delaware Park is a “win/win” for Buffalonians of all ages.  “I think what I am really talking about here is saving the park from itself,”  said the Mayor, who cited “the epiphany” he had as he watched huge plywood boards being placed over the windows of the bankrupt and vulnerable Statler Hotel.  “Someday that hotel might be returned to its former glory,” said Brown.  “And I think the same can be said about Delaware Park.”

The Mayor predicted that Park-related crime will “disappear almost overnight” after the mothball process has been completed.  “You can’t mug a jogger in Delaware Park when the jogger is not able to access the park,” said Brown.  “Muggers will have to look elsewhere to commit their petty crimes.  Like Amherst.”

Assistant to the Mayor Peter Cutler said that the dramatic rise in recent years of people enjoying the park “has certainly detracted from Delaware Park’s natural beauty and peacefulness.”  Cutler maintained that the thick plywood and snow fence that will be used to entomb the park “will restore some of that serenity that’s been missing for the past few years.”