Community Listening Day · May 20, 2026

May 20 is a listening day.

El 20 de mayo, te escuchamos.

Three sessions, one day, one question: what should the new playground at Delano-Hitch be? Newburgh answers that. If you play here, raise kids here, or live on the block, May 20 is when the City's grant application takes in what you tell us.

9:30 AM

Little Friends

Parents of kids 0 to 5

2:30 PM

Horizons on Hudson

One school class, not public

6:00 PM

Delano-Hitch

The main public meeting

RSVP for May 20 → Take the survey

Why May 20 matters

Your words go into a $2.5 million grant application.

The City of Newburgh is applying for a $2.5 million NY PLAYS grant from the state to build the city's first inclusive destination playground at Delano-Hitch. The application is due June 15, 2026, and what residents say on May 20 is cited directly in it. City Council is in full support. Saratoga Associates is the landscape architect.

$2.5M

NY PLAYS grant the City is applying for

June 15, 2026

Application due to the state

May 20

Resident input, cited in the application

Three sessions on May 20

Come to the one that fits your family.

Each session has a different audience and a different shape. You only need one.

Session 1 · 9:30 AM

Little Friends Learning Loft

For parents and caregivers of children ages 0 to 5. We sit in a circle for sixty minutes and listen: what your youngest kids need from a playground, and what keeps you away from the ones we have now. Little Friends is a Montessori program, so your children are welcome to come with you.

Take the Delano-Hitch survey →

Session 2 · 2:30 PM

Horizons on Hudson Elementary, third grade classroom

A forty-five-minute hands-on workshop with one class of third graders, ages 8 to 9. They draw, they dot-vote on equipment, and they tell us straight what they want. Newburgh Plays runs it with the classroom teacher.

This session is closed. It happens with a single classroom by arrangement with the school, so it is not open to the public. Families, please do not come to this one. Come at 9:30 AM or 6:00 PM instead.

Take the Delano-Hitch survey →

Session 3 · 6:00 PM · The main public meeting

Activity Center at Delano-Hitch Park

401 Washington Street, Newburgh, NY 12550

This is the meeting. Ninety minutes, open to every Newburgh resident. Vendor tables are open before and after: Dan from Landscape Structures and Danicka from Kompan bring product brochures and answer the technical questions. A short presentation sets up the design concepts, then Saratoga Associates leads the discussion table by table. At your table you work through five questions about what matters most in this playground.

The evening runs in English and Spanish, with bilingual surveys on hand. Tamika, our Ward 3 ambassador, co-hosts in Spanish.

RSVP for the 6 PM meeting → Take the survey

At your table, 6:00 PM

The five questions you will talk through.

Here they are now, so you walk in already thinking about your answers.

1 Your experience here: which Newburgh playgrounds do you use, what works, and what does not?
2 Your travel: where do you drive for a good playground, how far, and why there?
3 Your top priorities: inclusivity, shade, bathrooms, water, plantings, variety, quiet spaces, lighting. Pick three.
4 When you would use it: mornings, after school, evenings, weekends, summer, winter?
5 What we missed: what should we have asked you that we did not?

Good to know

Questions families ask.

Do I need to come to all three sessions?: No. Come to the one that fits your family. The 6:00 PM session at Delano-Hitch is the main public meeting.
Is parking available at Delano-Hitch?: Yes. Use the lot next to the Activity Center.
Is the evening session in Spanish?: Yes. The 6:00 PM session runs in English and Spanish, and Spanish-language materials and surveys are on hand.
Cannot make it on May 20?: Take the survey at newburghplaygrounds.org/survey/delano-hitch. Your input still counts toward the application.

Two ways to be heard

Pick one. Both count.

Come to a session on May 20, or take the survey from home. Either way, your answers reach the people writing the grant application.