Roxborough Park Project Moving Forward

A new year and a $200,000 committement from Councilman Curtis Jones' office seemed to be what was need to jumpstart Roxborough's Neighborhood Park Revitalization project.

"It really started moving in the last few weeks," Craig Ablin, a Roxborough resident and leader of the project said.

The councilman earmarked the money nearly two years ago, Ablin said, and now that the majority of the legwork is complete, the project is ready to move forward.

"We've had several meetings with the councilman," Ablin said. "He has been very accomodating."

The idea to transform the pocket park started shortly after Ablin moved to the area and realized it excluded major portions of the population.

"The park is good for toddlers and basketball players," he said. "It works for folks with small kids but doesn't work for older people or older children."

The mission of the park update is two-fold. First, Ablin said he hopes the facelift will make the park a little greener.

"We're basically attempting to take all the rainwater and reuse it inside the park instead of having it go into the city's sewer system," he said.

The overflow will, of course, drain into the city's system, but Ablin said the hope is that most is used to water local plants.

In addition to the sustainability piece, the project aims to open the park up to a greater number of residents.

"The idea is that when it's nice out people can walk over for lunch, college students can study in the park, we've even talked about a way to get wifi in the park," he said, adding that putting in chairs and tables would give older residents a reason to come to the park.

According to the plan, the project will:

• Repaint and resurface the park's basketball courts
• Potentially add chairs and tables for people to relax at the park
• Paint wiffleball, four square, kickball and hop-scotch boards onto the courts to maximize space.
• Add some play equipment for older children
• Potentially add a sprinkler system for children to use in the summer

"The whole point is that we're trying to build a park that is more attractive to the community," he said.

This month architectural blueprints are expected to be completed by the city's engineer. Although there are still a number of details and figures to be hammered out, Ablin said the project is "full steam ahead."

"I would love to see all the work done over the next year," he said. "Maybe the basketball courts could be painted this spring."