Bancroft Park being renovated
Park work: Bancroft Park on South 11th Street is being torn down and completely renovated. Beacon photo by Josie Sellers
COSHOCTON – Steve Jones is happy to see phase one of the Bancroft Park upgrades underway.
“That park has been an eyesore for a long time and the equipment was worn out,” said Jones, who is the city’s recreation director. “We tore everything out but the benches and are going to seed it and let the grass get established. After that we will have a community meeting to find out what the neighbors would like to have there.”
Bancroft Park is located on South 11th Street and Jones said it belonged to the city school district for a long time, was once owned by the city, went to the park system and then about three years ago came back under the city’s ownership.
“It’s in an older neighborhood and needs attention so the recreation department decided to clean it up,” he said. “This is something the Mayor has wanted to do and something that needs done if we expect others to clean up. This is a first step to show we are working on it.”
The project was bid out and won by William Albert Excavating, Inc.
“Part of the contract is for them to dispose of the equipment,” Jones said. “The reason we are taking it out is because it’s in bad shape. We can’t try to sell stuff that kids were getting cut on and is dilapidated.”
He envisions the park being for children in eighth grade and younger since the city already has Himebaugh Park for older kids. There also are plans in the works to make the parks safer by installing security cameras.
“We are going to find out what the community wants first though because we don’t want to put a bunch of stuff there that no one wants,” Jones said. “We will have that meeting mid to late summer once the grass is established because then we can start deciding where to put stuff. We have the money to do this. We just want to plan carefully because we expect it to be there a long time.”
The renovations to the park are being funded by the park levy and Jones stressed the money is not coming from the city’s general fund.
“Through the levy that Lake Park got each community gets $25,000 and we wanted to spend ours on specific improvements,” Jones said.
josie@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
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