PAR-la-Ville Park is a place many of us take for granted. An oasis in the midst of our now cosmopolitan society, it offers respite on a daily basis to homemakers, businessmen, students and visitors. Its overall excellence was recently recognised by members of the public who saw fit to present the Corporation of Hamilton with a Best of Bermuda Gold Award, delivered under the auspices of The Bermudian magazine. This week, Mid-Ocean News reporter Heather Wood and photographer Chris Burville took a tour of the grounds with the park’s superintendent, Steven Desilva.

STEVEN Desilva joined the Corporation of Hamilton as Superintendent of Parks in 2002. With the role came a host of responsibilities but the one he took to with the most vigour, was the care of what is arguably one of the most vital plots of land to the city — Par-la-Ville Park. “I’m part of the management team of City Hall and the superintendency of the park comes under my remit. It’s just a part of it but it’s a part that I’m passionate about. We don’t enjoy a water view. It’s best described as an urban park and we’ve seen it go from strength to strength. It’s centrally located and its location is its most outstanding feature. Fort Hamilton is an absolutely stunning place to go on any day of the week but it enjoys only a minuscule percentage of the visitors that Par-la-Ville Park does, because of its location.”

The park was originally private land, developed by Bermuda’s first postmaster, William Perot and his family.

“Par-la-Ville Park has remained unchanged for a very long time,” Mr. Desilva explained. “It’s a piece of Bermudiana that was once private property, owned by the Perot family. There was a private home here, stables and huge gardens. It was a true working property that provided food for the table.”

As Bermuda evolved so did the grounds. They became public land in the mid-1800s and have undergone vast transformation in the years since. The railway line that once travelled through the centre disappeared with that form of transportation long ago. In its stead is open space — a melange of paths, benches, flora and well-manicured grounds that has gained admiration and public kudos.

A great deal of that success lies with the two men responsible for the park’s upkeep. Between them, Ronald Tacklin and Manuel Docanto have cared for Par-la-Ville Park for close to 30 years.

“The two of them are responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the park,” said Mr. Desilva. “They work on a shift basis and are a very good match. They work well together. I can’t say enough about them. They’re two sterling workers. They’re ambassadors to the city. They spend every day in the park. They’re very organised. They have a routine. They’re very much in tune. As one would expect of two people who know their stock and trade, the know the season. They know whether to expect (a certain) type of problem, whether it be an insect or a fungal growth. They’re true gardeners.”

With the grounds cared for by the green thumbs of Mr. Docanto and Mr. Tacklin, the only concern left to the Corporation was how the park might otherwise be enhanced.

“There has been an evolution,” Mr. Desilva said. “And in the last four to five years or so, we at the Corporation have listened to the general public. People have come forward with increased demand on how the park is used and we, whilst trying to remain true to the original design of the park, listened to them.

“One little part of that is the improvement to the paths system. We are constantly trying to amend the paths so that wheelchair access is complete. At the moment it is a wheelchair accessible park but in a roundabout way. We do have a few steps. Our aim is to have none, so that a person in a wheelchair can use the park without any restriction whatsoever.”

Additional change has come in the form of a handful of sculptures. Three were donated by the Bermuda National Gallery from a collection bequeathed by the late John Hinson Young II and his wife Nelga — Jete, Italian sculptor Enzo Plazotta’s life-size bronze of international ballet star David Wall, Preying Mantis, a bronze by American sculptor Berthold Schiwetz, and Birds of Flight, a steel sculpture by Hungarian Artist George Gach. A fourth work was donated by African art collector Dusty Hind, a springstone sculpture by Shona artist Jonathan Mhondorohuma from Zimbabwe.

That Mr. Young had an expressed desire to create a sculpture garden in the park is now an established fact. According to Mr. Desilva, that wish fitted in well with the Corporation of Hamilton’s plans to enhance its retreat in the city centre.

“We want it to remain a place where you can come and chill out. Park designers from long ago figured out if you have a park in a city where people feel they can come and fall asleep, then you have a success. People often assume we only get the bums, people who are catatonic or alcoholic. Yeah, we have that but we also have people who come into the park to catch forty winks. If you can get people to feel that comfortable and that safe in the environment that they can doze off to sleep, then you’re winning.

“It’s a major thoroughfare between the commercial and the high business end of the city,” he pointed out. “I was just in London, if you look at the parks there we’re following on a very old model where big business uses a park to access the commercial part of town. It happens all over the world and that’s what we have here. It’s a very workable marriage between the two sectors of Hamilton. On any given day you can see the CEO right down to the janitor of the same company using the park. You see young men, students, you see mothers and everyone in between.”

A new entryway to the park featuring ornamental iron gates was added at Queen Street approximately two years ago. Access is also possible through a second entrance just a few steps later after Perot Post Office, and, via stairs off Par-la-Ville Road.

“We see the park growing from strength to strength. Its size is just under a third of an acre and it’s multi-faceted. There’s a public library here, an historical society, a very popular restaurant and very soon there will be major development on all sides.”

Although unable to give more information than that at present, Mr. Desilva said plans are now in the works which will “dramatically change the views from within the park”.

“Our city is developing at an exponential rate,” he stated. “I’m not at liberty to discuss who is involved but it’s unavoidable. There’s a lot going on (but) we would not sanction anything that did not have the park’s interest first and foremost. We at the City Hall are doing everything to protect places like this — these green areas we hold as sacrosanct. Whilst we get recommendations and requests from people to use the park in ways that we deem beneficial, we also get requests that we know would be a complete failure and complete detriment to the park, and so we jealously guard the park usage.”

There is a hope to encourage greater use of the park by adding to the “several hundred different species of plants” already on offer.

“Most of the plants in the park are introduced, they’re not indigenous,” the superintendent stated. “It’s the same with most of the flora in Bermuda. Our native plants have historically been usurped by introductions and that’s what we have (at Par-la-Ville).

“We look forward to having a proper rose garden in the park. Our aim is to encourage people to come in and use the park for wedding receptions and things like that. There are few things that can rival a couple having a really nice backdrop at a wedding — a really lovely rose arbour or something like that — and these are all facets that we want to bring to the city and Par-la-Ville in particular.”

Policing of the park is an ongoing problem. As was witnessed during this newspaper’s visit this week, gardeners are called on to help blossoms survive through attacks by vagrants, the occasional plant disease, and also wandering toddlers. Mr. Docanto and Mr. Tacklin regularly get to work at 7 a.m. to make sure the grounds are suitable before the gates are opened to the public at 7.30 a.m.

“Those are just some of the problems we have to put up with,” Mr. Desilva said. “For a small child, (wandering through flowerbeds is) very, very normal. And whilst the guys say, ‘Hey boss, can’t you put railings around?’, we don’t want it to feel like a prison. We want mothers to feel that their children can come in here and run around. There’s nothing wrong with that. So it’s not that hard a job to police in that sense. Ronnie and Manuel make sure the paths are clear of debris or litter or anything that might cause someone to trip. We have the young and the very old who use the park and we have to make sure that they can use it without worrying that they might fall. They then set about their daily routine whether it be irrigation, fertilising, weeding, planting, pruning - there are several plants in here that have to be pruned on a regular basis. They have a very set pruning regimen to force a plant to flower. But a lot of this is routine.

“We do get the odd insect problem - whether it be White Fly or some pernicious bug problem - which necessitates treatment. I personally take a very dim view of using a lot of chemicals because, whilst I have a teenage son, I also have a little girl and we don’t want parents to feel that their child cannot run around on the grass because it has chemicals on it. I refuse to do that. What we do instead is we alter the way we cut the grass and that minimises that insect problem or that weed problem. We rely on mechanical solutions rather than using chemicals.”

Protecting the property from illegal or socially unacceptable behaviour is the greater problem, he added.

“We’ve included a welcome arm stairway onto the covered walkway (in the centre of the park) and we’re going to replicate it on the other side of the walkway as kind of a band aid approach to an issue we’ve had for a while. We do have misuse in this park. Whilst we would like to think that we enjoy good relations with the police force, we know they are stretched and they just cannot come into the park and deal with rowdy kids or rowdy adults drinking and cursing ad hoc.

“We don’t want to put CCTV cameras in the park. What we want to do is create - in horticultural terms it’s called — a clair voyeur, a view from within a garden through to another part so that as you walk along Queen Street and you look up into the park you will be able to look unobstructed into this public walkway. It’s just a very, very subtle suggestion to these guys - you can’t sit here and smoke crack or smoke grass or drink or do anything untoward without the knowledge that someone’s checking up on you.”

The park is open for public use 365 days of the year, from 7.30 a.m. until sunset in the summer months.

“The usual reason for closing Par la Ville in the past has been to make it safe after a storm or hurricane. Fabian wreaked major damage. We still have wires here holding up (a) tamarin tree that was torn out of the ground — but other that that the park is open 365 days a year, seven days a week including Christmas day.”

Responsibility for the design of the park falls to Mr. Desilva. As such, he is especially proud that it is appreciated by the public.

“The water feature was done in 2006 — by one man with Ronnie, Manuel and a couple of other guys helping him out. We did it all within our (existing) budget. We’re really happy with it. It’s interactive. People come here and feel they can really be a part of it.”

The award from The Bermudian magazine was equally as welcomed although in this instance, the superintendent passes most of the credit on to his team.

“We’re very proud of it,” he said. “I think it’s the second time we’ve won that award on my watch. I would hasten to add that following my predecessor George Ogden, the preeminent horticulturalist in Bermuda wasn’t easy. I had a very difficult time thinking how I was going to fill his shoes so I had to find other ways. I think the proof is in the pudding. We took on changes in the park — the design and construction of water features, the inclusion of art in the park — little things like that which ultimately saw us presented with a Gold Award on two occasions. We don’t take it lightly.”

As a heartfelt thank you for their work, the Corporation has given both Mr. Docanto and Mr. Tacklin time off with pay.

“We see this as a way of rewarding our staff for exemplary service,” Mr. Desilva stated. “Their accumulated vacation leave is not compromised in any way. We don’t normally do it but because they’ve done such a sterling job for so many years, the Corporation decided to give them the day off with pay. They’re number one guys, very apt and very competent people. They know what they’re doing.”