Mark your calendars for the grand opening of Myers Park at 700 Olin St. -- behind Pineville City Hall -- at noon Saturday.
"Myers Park is a busy place spring, summer, and fall," Pineville Mayor Gregg Sweeten said, "and we wanted to make it an even better place for our kids to play."
The city purchased new playground equipment on the recommendation of the Planning Commission. The new equipment arrived in town on June 21 and was stored at the park.
The park closed July 5 and groundwork began with city employees doing all the work. The old park equipment was removed and grading and dirt work started first and then drainage had to be installed.
New equipment started going up the week of July 21.
"Then we had a torrential rain in town and it flooded the ditch behind the Community Center and ran through the park," Sweeten said. "But this was a good thing in part, because it helped the city employees see that the area needed to be built up a little more to keep it from washing out if we had that type of rain again."
City employees were putting up the rest of the equipment when city officials decided to put up a strong barrier between the License Office parking and the park.
"We didn't want a vehicle to possibly make its way into the park and hurt someone or destroy any of our equipment," Sweeten said.
A railroad tie fence was installed with railroad ties concreted in the ground standing up. Ties were laid cross-ways also. The city crews then poured a sidewalk with a curb and cleared the area to allow paving between Rhine Street and the new curb for parallel parking for the park.
"We have never had parking there," Sweeten said. "The folks just pulled off into the grass, so we wanted to add parking during the renovation of the park."
Next came the new grill, which was constructed of large, flat rocks we had just laying around. The grill has a large rock for a table to put cooking supplies on and a feature inside where people can cook on one shelf with charcoal or push that shelf back and cook with wood on a lower shelf.
"This grill is a great addition to the park and gives the folks there an option to barbecue while their kids play," Sweeten said. "Finally the leveling off of the ground and the pea gravel was added to make for a soft landing to finish the park and make it safe for the kids to play."
City employees who worked on the park also had all their other duties to do during the park renovation.
"I am so proud and impressed with these guys on how they have been able to get this all done and not let their other duties falter," Sweeten said. "These guys truly do the very best for our city in everything they do and they are always doing something to improve our town. We are really looking forward to getting the park back open and seeing the kids come out and play on the new equipment."
Community on 09/22/2016