Sept 3, 2006
A park, a park, my kingdom for a park. As most of you know, there has been several efforts to get a park in our community. When some of our oldest neighbors bought brand new homes they were made all kinds of promises. In the late 80's and early 90's the effort was a regional park near I-19 north of Irvington. There were the splash park years and now our latest chapter.
The first thing we did when I was a new president 16 months ago was have the City of Tucson call the area behind Fire Station #18 ?“a park?”. Parks and Recreation used ?“Back to Basics?” money to do some minor improvements.
The next thing we did was pursue Pima County Neighborhood Reinvestment grant. Part of that process was to take a survey to see what the neighborhood felt they needed most. Even though the grant committee wanted improvements for the park, the neighborhood felt that neighborhood lighting was more important. The group did the community?’s will. Because of this effort we will soon have street lights on Midvale Park Road and on Oak Tree Drive.
Parks and Recreation found some extra funds recently and added asphalt to the walking path. They planted and installed irrigation for more than 20 trees. They also installed a drinking fountain. We were so excited that channel 9 came out and ran a small story on the progress. Both newspapers also ran small stories. We started a petition to name the park after one of Midvale Parks most active neighbors, Larry LaFond.
Most recently we tried to use $150,000 of Pima County bond money. It looked as if we would at least accomplish our original goal. In our efforts we had spelled out and prioritized what we wanted in ?“Larry LaFond Park?”. We wanted electricity and water. We wanted a nice playground facility. We wanted grass. It was simple, or so we thought.
It seems the City of Tucson and TUSD had been working on idea too. On September 13 Parks and Recreation will unveil a proposal to us at our meeting. Jose Ibarra and Richard Elias will be on hand to assist them. Hopefully this effort will improve the lives of our youths and their families.
A park, a park, my kingdom for a park. As most of you know, there has been several efforts to get a park in our community. When some of our oldest neighbors bought brand new homes they were made all kinds of promises. In the late 80's and early 90's the effort was a regional park near I-19 north of Irvington. There were the splash park years and now our latest chapter.
The first thing we did when I was a new president 16 months ago was have the City of Tucson call the area behind Fire Station #18 ?“a park?”. Parks and Recreation used ?“Back to Basics?” money to do some minor improvements.
The next thing we did was pursue Pima County Neighborhood Reinvestment grant. Part of that process was to take a survey to see what the neighborhood felt they needed most. Even though the grant committee wanted improvements for the park, the neighborhood felt that neighborhood lighting was more important. The group did the community?’s will. Because of this effort we will soon have street lights on Midvale Park Road and on Oak Tree Drive.
Parks and Recreation found some extra funds recently and added asphalt to the walking path. They planted and installed irrigation for more than 20 trees. They also installed a drinking fountain. We were so excited that channel 9 came out and ran a small story on the progress. Both newspapers also ran small stories. We started a petition to name the park after one of Midvale Parks most active neighbors, Larry LaFond.
Most recently we tried to use $150,000 of Pima County bond money. It looked as if we would at least accomplish our original goal. In our efforts we had spelled out and prioritized what we wanted in ?“Larry LaFond Park?”. We wanted electricity and water. We wanted a nice playground facility. We wanted grass. It was simple, or so we thought.
It seems the City of Tucson and TUSD had been working on idea too. On September 13 Parks and Recreation will unveil a proposal to us at our meeting. Jose Ibarra and Richard Elias will be on hand to assist them. Hopefully this effort will improve the lives of our youths and their families.
