WILLIAMSBURG — Let there be "Ice Age."
After distressed parents lamented the discontinuation of a popular kid movie series at East River State Park, officials have since promised to hold the outdoor screenings there this summer.
"We will have movies at East River this summer," state Parks department spokesman Randy Simons said after a DNAinfo.com article about the films' cancellation. "The movies typically don’t begin until mid-June and by mid-June of this year we will have them ready to go."
Simons said the series would be held with a "community based non-profit currently under review," but he would not release further details about the organization or its schedule.
"Once we have that schedule I will send it to you immediately," he said, noting that other kids' activities would also be at the park including a weekday kids' "Park House" providing "games and sports like lawn bowling, giant chess and basketball.”
Simons' announcement followed parents' complaints that the state had cut kids' programs and had allowed the Brooklyn Flea to take up rare green space at East River State Park where families brought their children to frolic.
"They don't seem to care about the kids who use this park," local father Jonathan Burkan previously said.
At the news of the intended kids' movie series, Burkan said he hoped the program would indeed occur, but that he didn't know what to think until the plans were set in stone. And he emphasized that the non-profit Town Square that previously hosted the films had set big shoes to fill.
"Susan Anderson has done an unbelievable job with Town Square hosting the films," said Burkan of the organization's leader, who was unable to work out a deal with the state this year to hold the series. "I have no idea what organization is potentially doing this now...I certainbly hope it happens."
But he said he was surprised the series was indeed going to occur.
"Memorial Day Weekend is the start of summer," he said, "and we see no information written about anything."
