UPDATE, From Mayor Finch:
Due to weather concerns, the “Park City Celebration” event at Newfield Park in the City’s East End has been postponed to Sunday, July 29.
On Saturday, July 28, Mayor Bill Finch will host a “Park City Celebration” event at Newfield Park, which will soon be home to the City’s fourth splash pad. The splash pad is the latest addition to the East End park, which has seen many upgrades and improvements over the last two years.
“We are committed to providing residents with beautiful and active parks throughout the City. We’ve worked with the East End community to make upgrades to this park so it offers something for everyone in the neighborhood.” said Mayor Bill Finch. “The addition of a splash pad will give East End kids a place to cool off on hot summer days. This is the fourth splash pad installed in the City, and all of them have been very popular with both parents and children.”
During the last two years, through Mayor Finch’s Bridgeport@Work capital improvements plan, the City has made several improvements to Newfield Park including the dedication of tennis courts to Robert “Bobby” McIntosh in 2010, a barbecue shelter in 2011 and a splash pad-children’s play area this summer.
Improvements to Newfield Park are the result of collaboration between the City, the East End Neighborhood Revitalization Zone (NRZ) and the East End Community Council.
Saturday’s event will include a barbecue, horseshoes, cricket and basketball clinics.
Previous “Park City Celebration” events have been held at Washington Park, home of the City’s most recent installed splash pad, Knowlton Park, McLevy Green and Seaside Park. For a full schedule of upcoming events, and photos from previous events, log on to parkcitycelebration.com.
New and refurbished parks in the Park City. Good stuff.
*** About time! ***
Looks great, nice job.
Really–great for the neighborhood. However, so many parks, so little time doesn’t quite cut it as an overarching redevelopment plan. Love the parks, where are the jobs???
Nice and about time. More will be needed. Firefighters have complained for years the City needed to do something because the only thing hot kids do if they couldn’t go to the park was to open fire hydrants to get cool in hot weather, well hydrants are tools firefighters need to fight fires, they are not play toys.
Let’s thank Ken Hayes of the Vibes for getting the ball rolling on this splash pad idea as they made it happen at Muñoz School and showed everybody it works.
The Vibes came up with the donation to do the first one. Now the challenge in the Parks is to engage the local communities to put “Eyes on the Parks” as neighborhood organizations should be given a lead role in their sustainability. This has been missing at Washington Park as the restrooms there are broken into at all hours, with unspeakable unsanitary conditions, graffiti and vandalism. This is what happens when you don’t have neighborhood ownership.