While the new playground in Central Park is in place and in use for weeks now, the City’s Park Board is nowhere near done with improvements.
Deputy Clerk and Central Park improvement advocate Diane Campbell on Monday updated the Tracy City Council on what lies ahead for Tracy’s largest park.
Campbell said the board is working on wrapping up the first phase of the park project — purchasing donation plaques, installing sidewalks around the playground, and benches along the sidewalk and around the park, and bringing in memorial trees.
“Right now, we have sixplus benches paid for (with donations),” Campbell said. “The benches are going to look just like Kurt Enderson’s at the airport, with the exception of the engraving; we’ll put a plaque on them.”
Campbell said it is likely six benches will be placed around the playground, and more will be added along the future walking loop.
“The master plan indicates how many benches, and anything beyond that, we would start looking at other parks that need benches,” she said.
Bandshell roof repairs will also take place this year.
Phase II of the masterplan has been kicked off, and flyers will be sent to Tracy residents to educate them about the Park Board’s end goal.
“We sent a bunch of them to ag property owners at the end of December last year,” Campbell said. “We got a pretty good response from that, and now we’re going to be sending them out in Tracy. We wanted to wait until the (playground) equipment was up.”
Phase II includes electric updates, the walking loop, and possibly installing a halfcourt basketball court and getting the old fountain up and running again.
“We had a donation for the water (system) in the park, so that has been installed and is functional, Campbell said. “We’d still like to do a warming house by the ice skating rink and get that lit up so kids and adults can skate when it’s dark out.”
The City received $30,000 from the Taylor Family Farms Foundation to go toward the park.
“We have about 40 days left to figure out how we’re going to use that money that would best benefit the parks,” Tracy City Administrator Jeff Carpenter said.
Campbell said the City has enough funds to cover the donation plaques and the sidewalk. Another push for donations will take place to raise more money for Phase II.
Campbell said the arrival of emerald ash borers will force the City to remove some trees.
“We’re going to want to replace the trees, not leave all the holes,” Campbell said. “We are going to do a memorial tree push to try and get people to donate trees in honor of their loved ones.”
Campbell estimates the trees will cost about $500 apiece. For the benches, it’s $1,600 per bench, and the council on Monday approved five $1,600 donations at its regular meeting.
“If somebody is interested in donating to the trees, or the masterplan, or benches, they can contact City Hall at 507629-5533, and we will take care of getting that ordered for them,” Campbell said.
More information on the tree situation at the park and the City’s push to remedy it will be in next week’s Headlight Herald.
