Old park will get new life

Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002 | 9:45 a.m.

About 30 residents living in the historic Huntridge neighborhood said Monday night they are concerned about traffic, security and homeless people sleeping in Circle Park and that they support a $1.6 million upgrade to the park.

Neighbors presented an idea to Councilman Gary Reese almost a year ago to transform the 3.72-acre park into a place for neighbors to gather, walk and picnic.

Created in the 1940s, the park along Maryland Parkway near Charleston Boulevard needs a face-lift, Reese said.

"I want to see this park used," he said.

A 15-member steering committee developed a plan for the park that included jogging trails, a children's play area and an amphitheater, committee chairman Ben Contine said Monday.

The park would be protected by a barrier, perhaps one designed by local artists, to keep Maryland Parkway traffic off the grass.

Other than trees and grass, the park -- which in its early years hosted youth baseball and football games -- has never been developed. In recent years it has become a haven for the homeless.

"You can come here and be a child again," Contine said. The park would be family-friendly, not a teenage hangout, he said.

"The way you get rid of the homeless people is to use the park," Contine said. "We are going to come here and take it back."

No trees will be removed, according to the committee.

Steering committee member Kasey Baker-Benoit said she started working on the committee in February after buying a home on 15th Street in June 2001 and joining the Huntridge Neighborhood Association. She had studied architecture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for seven years.

Carpenter Sellers Associates, the architectural firm that is donating time to design the park, was so impressed with Baker-Benoit's work that she got the job of managing the project, architect Rick Sellers said.

Although the city's plan to remodel the park is little more than cardboard, balsa wood and toothpicks -- and blew over in the evening breezes -- ground-breaking could come in as little as two months, said Sam Tolman of the city's Public Works Department.

City Manager Doug Selby said permits for construction have to be secured before the redesign begins.

Reese and Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams have secured the funds. The city and county will each pay $600,000.

The park will be closed for the 18 months it takes to construct a jogging trail and build the amphitheater and the children's area.

The city also plans to install traffic lights for pedestrians to cross the parkway safely.