Saturday, April 11, 1998 | 2:04 a.m.
Here's a look at three local parks that have opened in the past year:
* Rainbow Family Park
When Rainbow Family Park finally opened last month after four years of delays, around 2,700 people showed up to eat hot dogs, get their faces painted, and enjoy the sunshine.
"It was a great day," recalled Councilman Michael McDonald, who threw out the first pitch on opening day. "and the kids all had a blast. "The fields were perfectly manicured -- I'll put this up against any ballpark in the U.S."
McDonald, whose ward inherited the uncompleted private project in 1996, worked with neighborhood groups and the city parks department to finish the plagued project when problems arose with the private contractor. "Rainbow Park was a long journey home, if you will," he said.
Nestled next door to the gleaming Bahai Temple, the 15-acre Rainbow Park now features six ballfields, swings, sprinklers, a 1.5 mile bike path and a playground.
Jill Guzzo and her friend Michelle Simister travel from the far Northwest and the Lakes to bring their children to the Oakey and Rainbow Boulevard park.
"Even though it's farther," Guzzo said, "we like it better."
* Rafael Rivera Park
Reaction has been "tremendous" to the 9-acre, $1.8 million Rafael Rivera Park, which debuted in November, said recreation field supervisor Lance Mecham.
The park features a playground, lit ballfields and, most notably, one of the city's few fields designated for soccer, which has won favor with local players.
"The city knows there is a dearth of fields for all sports, and recognizes that soccer has been underserved," said Marc Hechter, vice chairman of the Silver State Girls Soccer League, which uses the field on Saturdays.
The rest of the time, students of the Roy Martin Middle School next door and members of the community are snapping up the space, said Ingrid Williams, coordinator of the adjacent Rafael Rivera Community Center.
"The park is used quite heavily from morning until the lights go off, right around 10 o'clock at night," she observed. "Even when it was cold and rainy, they were still out there. I don't know what's going to happen when it gets really nice."
The Rafael Rivera Community Center (229-4600) has been able to take full advantage of the new park. Kids in the Track Break program at the center can now use the adjacent playground, while tennis lessons in association with the U.S. Tennis Association will begin this May.
The center also has been able to start a booked-solid Teeny Weeny League for tots 3-5 years old. The first sport to kick off the season? Soccer.
* Grapevine Springs
Named by fifth-grader Rebecca Hayes of nearby Tomiyasu Elementary School in an award-winning essay contest, this tiny 4-acre neighborhood park, tucked behind the highway in the southeast part of town, features a preserved natural spring area, as well as a volleyball court, picnic area, playground and walking path.
The space was once an undeveloped plot of sand where vagrants slept, while local residents had to trek to Sunset Park.
But as Marie Odom, 11, pointed out, it's too far for her to Rollerblade over to Sunset on her own because "there's a really big hill."
Now, the park is filled with neighborhood kids such as 8-year-old Lacy Dodd, whose favorite part is the huge sprawling tree preserved in the middle of the park, "because I can climb it," she explained, as well as all the hideouts in the bushes, which make for quality games of hide 'n seek with her sister, Rosetta.
But Jason Haynie, 16, a wrestler at Chaparral High School, uses the park for some intensive seeking of his own.
"I meet a lot of girls here," he quipped. "Especially on Sundays after church."
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