Future looks bright for south Merced park
The Merced City Council is expected Monday to accept more than $800,000 in California Housing and Community Development Department funds to improve Stephen Leonard Park, making it the second south Merced park to be targeted for improvements in recent years.
The state awarded $828,775 for a number of improvements to the park; the money is $109,000 more than the city expected to be eligible for.
The council will be asked by its staff to accept the grant during the regular meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 678 W. 18th St.
Stephen Leonard Park at Seventh and T streets will get a skate park, shade structures, a splash pad, new playground equipment, climbing rocks, security cameras and bike racks. The project also includes benches, lights, drinking fountains, building repair and painting, sprinkler controllers, tables, trees and new sidewalks.
The city is eligible for the grant money from the state’s Housing-Related Parks Program because it completed two low-income housing projects in the area, Woodbridge and Gateway Terrace.
The park’s pool has sat unused for five or six years, according to city staff. It needs a $20,000 liner and a $7,000 lift to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Instead of making those fixes, the plan is to replace the pool with a splash pad – basically a water fountain people can play in – which doesn’t need lifeguard supervision and can stay open longer.
The other south Merced park that has seen improvements is McNamara Park, but a dispute leaves only part of the grounds usable. The roughly 70-year-old, almost 9-acre park was marked for a face-lift in spring 2013, one that would use about $2.6 million in state grant money.
McNamara’s pool remains intact and swim lessons are given each summer. A building in the park will reopen this month as the McNamara Park Youth Center.
Though city officials were expecting an artificial soccer field at the 1040 Canal St. park to be ready in April, they are in negotiations with contractors over who will fix the uneven artificial pitch.
As a result, city officials have said they are uncertain when the renovations to the field will be complete.
A closed-session meeting is planned at 5 p.m. in City Hall, followed by a study session about the treatment of industrial wastewater.
City Council meetings are streamed live on the Internet; a link to the meeting and past videos is at www.cityofmerced.org. The meeting is also shown live on Comcast’s Government Channel 96.
Sun-Star staff writer Thaddeus Miller can be reached at (209) 385-2453 or tmiller@mercedsunstar.com.
This story was originally published January 4, 2015 at 3:24 PM with the headline "Future looks bright for south Merced park."