City receives $800,000 grant for fixing Downtown City Park
This rendering shows the proposed design of the renovated playground area of Downtown City Park.
The Paso Robles City Council on Tuesday authorized execution of state agreement for a grant from the California Department of Housing and Community Development Housing-Related Parks Program for $804,450. The funds will be used to rehabilitated Downtown City Park. The conditions of the grant stipulates that the funds be used by June 30, 2016.
“Basically 18 months, nip and tuck,” Ed Gallagher, the city’s Community Development Director, said of the tight frame.
Improvement and rehabilitation projects include:
- Playground renovation
- Make interior paths ADA-compliant
- Repair exterior sidewalks
- Upgrade electrical system
- Upgrade irrigation system
- Reforestation
- Renovate gazebo
- Redo fountain area
- Redo barbecue and horseshoe area
In addition to the grant, the city has approximately $686,626 in undesignated redevelopment funds from the 2009 bond sale that may be used for the project. The REC Foundation has also raised approximately $80,000 to renovate the playground.
“We’ve been deferring maintenance issues, now we can take care of maintenance issues,” REC Foundation President Brandon Medeiros said. “This goes back over 10 years. That’s how long we’ve had an eye on the park. I can tell you 80,000 reasons why it’s important to support this project and the park,” he said.
A founding member of the foundation, Greg Haas, said that redoing the play equipment in city park was one of first things put on the group’s plate. He said the organization offered the city $10,000 about 10 years ago, but it went back to the foundation when the city didn’t move forward with redoing the play area.
“I am certainly in favor of this, but please get it done in my lifetime,” Paso Robles resident Kathy Barnett said.
Paso Robles Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman Chris Taranto said the commission supports upgrades being made to the park, which sits in the center of downtown.
“It is that marquee place,” said Taranto, who is also the communications director for the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance. “It’s that place we invite people to. Yet our playground in the downtown and some other infrastructure is in need of [some improvement]. We are in full support of this money going … to downtown city park.”
The councilmen echoed their agreement that the park is in sore need of work.
“When my daughter was nine years old I had high hopes she’d be able to enjoy it. Now that her daughter is two years old, I really hope [we can get this done],” Councilman Fred Strong said.
Councilman Steve Martin said that having a maintenance plan is important. “You can’t just fix it once and expect it to stay that way, you always need to have a plan in place [to maintain it],” he said.
