Community meeting to discuss Sharpsburg's Kennedy Park planned for Tuesday

Sharpsburg residents will have an opportunity to help decide the future of Kennedy Park at an event hosted by a borough teen leader.

Junior council member Roman Mason will host a community meeting from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Atithi Studios, 1020 North Canal St.

The event is described as an intensive, multidisciplinary workshop with the aim of developing a design or vision for a project. Registration is not required.

“I’m having this meeting because I want everyone in Sharpsburg to be on the same page with the park moving forward,” Mason said Friday afternoon. “The park has definitely supported me because that’s where I grew up playing and that’s where I used to play football with my friends. Over covid, me and a couple of guys on the football team would workout there. So, the park became special to us.”

Mason said he looks forward to hearing what people have to say as well as discussing what youths want at the park.

The Fox Chapel Area High School student council president was appointed as a junior council member at council’s June 23 meeting and wasted little time pushing improvements for the park.

He lobbied for the lights to come on at the basketball court and ball fields at Kennedy Park. The park closes at dusk.

Mason said at the time youths want to be able to play ball a little later in the summer, and the lights do not come on at all.

He recently pitched a skate park with the help of Deeplocal, a creative technology and experience design agency in Sharpsburg.

“Deeplocal’s participation at this point is primarily through me identifying how we can help, and making the needed introductions,” manager of operations and production Eanna Holton said via email to the Tribune-Review earlier this year.

“I intend to personally support Roman through this project through completion. We currently have one of our experience designers working on a high-level 3D render of what a larger park space could be, but this is just to help get Roman’s vision into a physical realm and help us decide what fits, what works and what doesn’t.”

Mason originally proposed the skate park in July to be built on a property owned by PennDOT. Those plans shifted to possibly Kennedy Park after discussions with PennDOT and other officials about land usage, liability and other issues.

He also discussed the project a few months ago with Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, who was impressed with the young man’s desire to improve his town’s recreation capabilities.

“While the county isn’t involved in this project or proposal, I was delighted to meet with Roman and to hear his plans to activate and provide additional recreational opportunities for the youth in his community,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s not only come up with the idea, but focused on how to continue to support this project when and if it becomes a reality. It’s impressive to see a young man who has put so much thought and effort into a proposal like this one, and we wish him the best as he pursues the options available in the borough.”