Washington Park project updates, just in time for spring
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Crews worked on the construction Wednesday of the access road to Washington Park.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
A new paved walking path at Washington Park
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
A new paved walking path at Washington Park
The city of Washington is planning improvements for Washington Park, just in time for warm, spring temperatures and, hopefully, more sunshine.
The recently paved walking trail that starts at the pool and goes around the pond may possibly be extended to the Main Pavilion. The city used grant money to put in the walking trail on the east side of the pool with some playground equipment and ADA-accessible parking spaces.
Next week, the city plans to apply for a $60,000 grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to pay for the extension of the trail. The city will need to match that grant with $60,000, according to Rich Cleveland, of CT Consultants, who writes and plans grants of the city.
“This project is to pick up where that trail ends,” he said. “This will continue the trail up to the Main Pavilion and continue it back down to the west side of the pool.”
Sarah Boyce of Widmer Engineering said the city plans to make stormwater drainage improvements in the park, near where the potential trail extension would be along Log Cabin Road near the Pinto baseball field.
She said they also plan to accomplish stormwater work along the access road that leads to the TWIST softball fields, and make improvements to a 20-foot-deep storm tunnel that caused a sinkhole on Dunn Avenue. Boyce said the city had repaired the surface damage where the void was on Dunn, but not the tunnel itself.
“It has a collapsed section in it that was causing a void on Dunn Avenue,” she said.
Boyce said the city has leftover Local Share Account funds from a 2016 project that has to be used for stormwater projects in the park. The plan is to use that $77,182 in leftover funds to fix the brick storm tunnel, which runs from the tennis courts to the pond. She said she hopes to put that project out to bid by June.
In other ongoing park projects, Lane Construction Corp., the contractor for the state Department of Transportation’s Interstate 70 widening project, is making progress on the park’s emergency access road.
PennDOT required the company to find a place to put the 1 million cubic yards of dirt from the I-70 project. The city agreed to take about 150,000 cubic yards of it to fill in an area of the park behind the Stone Pavilion, if Lane Construction also built an emergency access road to the park near Clare Drive.
The company has begun building the road as well as filling in that section of the park. Mayor Scott Putnam said he believes the access road should be completed within the next few months.
The Main Pavilion, which has been undergoing renovations since 2015, is almost completed, according to park foreman Chriss Marshman. He said it still needs a front staircase and new flooring and lighting, but that “it’s pretty much done.”
City Councilman Matthew Staniszewski said he’s hoping to utilize the “historic and scenic” pavilions at the park as wedding venues for local couples.
“There’s a huge opportunity for that,” he said. “We want to strengthen marketing, as well.”
Staniszewski said community leaders recently collaborated to re-establish the Friends of the Park organization. He said the committee is looking into making improvements at the ballfields and bringing in new family-oriented programming and amenities to the park.
“We want the park to be a regional recreational destination that provides diverse amenities and that will attract everyone,” he said.