Goshen grandfather urges guardrails near Craigville Park fields for child safety

At Myron Urbanski Memorial Park in Goshen, children are taking swings and fielding grounders just feet from Craigville Road, and Washingtonville grandfather Michael Graziano says the stretch in front of the Little League fields still has no guardrails to stop a car that could leave the pavement.

Graziano raised the alarm while watching his grandchildren play at the park, which sits at 118 Craigville Road and is also known locally as Craigville Park. News 12 reported that guardrails are installed along another section of the road near the tennis courts, but not along the roadway beside the baseball and softball fields, where Graziano fears a vehicle could enter the area where children are gathered.

Graziano said he had already contacted the Orange County Department of Public Works, but he had not seen any action. The park is owned and maintained by the Joint Recreation Committee, and a Goshen Little League representative said the issue would be reviewed with town and county officials as needed. A JRC spokesperson said safety is the top priority and urged residents to bring concerns directly to the board, making the guardrail question a test of how quickly local government can respond when a recreation site doubles as a roadside hazard.

The concern carries extra weight because Goshen Little League says it has used the park since 1951. The site holds multiple baseball and softball fields, including an instructional field, along with soccer fields, a playground, restrooms and a pavilion with a kitchen, making it one of the town’s most heavily used shared recreation spaces for families.

The park’s modern name reflects its long history in Goshen. In 2012, town officials unanimously agreed to rename the Land O’Goshen Recreation Park for former Town Supervisor Myron Urbanski, who served from 1983 to 1993 and died in May 2012. The rename followed praise for Urbanski’s role in building out a place where children could play sports.

Local governments have continued to invest in the site over the years. The Town of Goshen approved a $7,500 contribution for drainage work in 2012, the Village of Goshen later approved up to $10,000 for parking lot resurfacing in 2015, and the Joint Recreation Commission reported in 2023 that a pavilion had been installed and pickleball courts added near the entrance. The commission also said basketball courts were soon to be built near the softball field, underscoring how much public money and community use already flow through a park where one missing barrier now stands out.