Our community spotlight this issue of the Juniper Berry shines on Wade Metzner, a NYC Parks Dept. employee for 32 years.

Wade was born in Margaretville, New York in 1953. He came to NYC when he was seven years old. He went to our local schools, PS 81, Junior High School 93 and is a graduate of Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood.

Wade has been with the NYC Department of Parks since 1967 doing various jobs within that agency. He started in Grover Cleveland Park, moved on to Mafera Park and other parks within the Community Board 5 boundaries. He came to Juniper Valley Park in the early 1980’s and left in 1984 for assignments in other parks, including Principe Park in Maspeth, which was the former Maurice Park.

Wade has been assigned to Juniper Valley Park now for several years and he is quite content in that assignment.

Wade is married to Laura, and has a son, Marc, who attends Martin Luther High School. He has lived in Middle Village for many years.

Wade is one of those long time city workers whom we see every day, working in Juniper Park and, frankly, we take their jobs for granted. Unless someone has a big fancy title we don’t pay enough attention to them but they are the ones who keep everything moving smoothly in the background. Wade Metzner is one of those indispensable city employees, without whom we would have a chaotic parks system!

We commend Wade on his service to the City of New York and we wish him many more years of productive work in our Community Board 5 parks which, maybe we’re prejudiced, we think are the best parks in the City of New York! Good job, Wade, and thanks for your effort.