Bethel Park recreation upgrades announced

Bethel Park officials announced the winning visions of playground upgrades for Birch Tree, Oak Tree and Millennium parks.

The borough sent out surveys to neighboring property owners to find out what they wanted to see in their parks’ play areas. There were two options for each site.

“We want the community to be involved in our parks,” councilman Joe Consolmagno said of the process. “It’s better than having one person or nine council people dictating what should be done. Give them the options and let them decide.”

Surveys went out in early May and returned near the end of the month. Responses were tallied the second week of June.

Council president Tim Moury showed the three top choices at the June 14 council meeting.

“Overall, I am very happy at the community response in the playground selections,” Moury said. “Our goal was to ask the residents who will use the park the most what they would like to see. We approached two separate suppliers to provide what they felt were the best options given their background and experience. We also tasked them to show something different than we have in our current parks to distinguish each neighborhood park.”

He said the projects may get underway within the next 60 to 90 days. The estimated total cost is around $350,000.

Council did not vote on any playground purchases at the meeting.

Moury said the borough plans to get the equipment through Snider Recreation via the COSTAR state purchasing program. The order was placed June 15 and payment will be authorized next month.

This was not the first time council reached out to residents near parks to get input via a survey.

“We did this during the renovations at Miners Park and it was successful, so we did it again,” said Stacey Graf, borough director of engineering.

Other borough parks are also being upgraded as part of a multi-phase recreational development that was started a few years ago.

A new splash pad, playground and pavilions are among the plans for a park along Park Avenue. That project is expected to be completed some time next year.

The ballfields at Millennium Park are under construction, and officials are evaluating having pickleball courts at that site. Village Green Park will be getting new exercise equipment for the trail.

Simmons Park was upgraded a couple of years ago.