Published: June 21, 2008 12:31 am            

PENDLETON: Park improvement project wrapped up

PENDLETON — The latest addition to the newly improved town park went up recently, compliments of the Pendleton Lions Club, and now an unanticipated improvement can be made.

The 20-foot-by-20-foot Jaycees picnic shelter at the park was replaced with a bigger, better version after the Lions Club pledged its members to put it together using town-purchased materials.

The new, 40-foot-by-50-foot shelter is usable now, town recreation committee Chairman Ed Harman said, but since the town received a $10,000 grant from the office of state Sen. George Maziarz, it can afford to have a floor installed.

Once that’s done, a lengthy phase of planning and executing park improvements will be complete. Two new handicap-accessible playgrounds are installed and in use, along with an access path to the playgrounds from the parking lot.

Harman said donated supplies and labor helped the committee maximize kid-friendly improvements. The town freed up $125,000 to invest in the playgrounds, one for 2- to 5-year-olds and another for 5- to 12-year-olds, and lucked out when 152nd Engineers Support Co. offered its services, through the National Guard Help program, to offset installation costs. Guard help meant the town didn’t have to hire out the help and could put more money into play equipment, Harman said.

Guardsmen volunteers dismantled existing play equipment and took it away, prepared the ground for new equipment and built the access path from play areas to parking lot. They also dismantled the old picnic shelter, Harman said.

Several area businesses donated services and materials as well: LaFarge gave all of the stone for the access path and William Rott & Sons construction company donated labor to build the new pavilion roof.

A new phase of park work called for in the committee’s long-range plan — replacing existing bathrooms and adding a concession stand — is “years off,” Harman said. First it has to raise the money to hire a designer, then raise money to pay for the improvements.

        

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