Hazelwood's Lewis Playground could see $500K in improvements from Mon-Connector money

Lewis Playground in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood could see improvements as City Council is considering a proposal that would provide over $500,000 to improve the park.

Councilwoman Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield, sponsored legislation that would take money from the scrapped portion of the Mon-Oakland connector project and reallocate it for the park.

She said there had been “lots of talk” about how the Mon-Oakland Connector’s proposed shuttle between Oakland and Hazelwood would benefit the Hazelwood community. Since the controversial project was nixed, Warwick said, she’s hoping to use some of the money originally allocated for that purpose to complete a project that Hazelwood residents have said would benefit their neighborhood.

“Lewis Playground is something the Hazelwood community has been wanting to get fixed for a really long time,” Warwick said. “That’s why I’m holding this money to do that.”

People have been calling for upgrades to the playground for years, she said, but the initiative “just hasn’t had the funding.”

The playground currently is in “poor condition,” she said.

Upgrades would include resurfacing the basketball courts and repairing retaining walls, Warwick said. She also proposed removing an under-utilized hockey deck and putting something else in that space that would get more use.

Council President Theresa Kail-Smith and other council members questioned how to prioritize which parks should get improvements first, given that many districts have parks in need of upgrades.

“I also have projects in my district that have been waiting and are waiting and continue to wait,” Kail-Smith said.

Department of Public Works Director Chris Hornstein said officials consider a number of factors in prioritizing park and playground projects. The most important factor, he said, is safety. After that, they consider whether the department has the capacity to complete a project in a timely fashion and whether the community the project is situated in is one that has “more immediate need” for the work.

Kail-Smith said she also would like to investigate whether the money could come instead from the city’s parks tax.

She abstained from a preliminary vote on the measure Monday. All other council members in attendance supported the measure in a preliminary vote. Councilmen Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, Ricky Burgess, D-Point Breeze, and Bruce Kraus, D-South Side, were not present for the vote.

Council is expected to take a final vote on the measure next week.

Warwick earlier this year reallocated $320,000 from the defunct Mon-Oakland Connector initiative to improvements at Four Mile Run Playground in the city’s Greenfield neighborhood. She also moved $1.4 million from that project for fund improvements at Burgwin Recreation Center and to build a new playground in Lincoln Place.

According to the legislation before council, there is still about $5.4 million in the Mon-Oakland Connector project fund.