Plans for $1.3 million renovation of Overlook Park in Whitehall released

Whitehall officials have revealed plans for an estimated $1.3 million redevelopment project at Overlook Park.

They include a new playground and swings, installation of an Americans with Disabilities Act compliant pathway to the playground, upgrades to the baseball field and improved access via rebuilt stairs from Spring Valley and Orchard Hill drives.

An old shelter house that stood for more than 50 years on the 3.5-acre recreation site will be demolished to make room for a new one-story building with restrooms, concession stand and storage space.

The borough has applied for a state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources grant to cover the cost of the project, as well as a $135,000 playground grant through GameTime.

The DCNR grant requires a 50% borough match.

Borough manager Courtney Wertz said they plan to use funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to pay for the match and entire project if necessary.

“The borough has been investing in the neighborhood park system for some time and completed a Neighborhood Parks Master Plan in 2019,” Wertz said. “The Overlook Park rehabilitation project aligns with the goals set forth in that plan. Access to Overlook Park has always been a challenge — both for users of the park and from a construction standpoint. A main goal of the project is to ensure safe access points for local residents with the stair rebuilds.

“The ability to mobilize one time and complete a large-scale rehabilitation of the park rather than perform multiple phases is a much more efficient and economical plan. The ARPA funds made that possible.”

Councilwoman Kathy Depuy said she used to play in the park often when attending classes at what is now known as Mother of Mercy Academy, and its upgrades are long overdue.

“Whitehall has no area for a single park,” Depuy said. “When Whitehall was developed it was in the era were families had one car and children played close to home. We have six individual parks in a 3.3-mile area. So, they’re all fairly small.

“There’s no way to get a parking lot in (Overlook) Park. There (are) stairs either up to it from one street, down to it from another and a ramp that we can get a truck in for maintenance, but it’s only one way. We need to revamp it. We’ve been working on taking a serious look on all of our parks.”

She said the steps leading to the park are safe, but their posts are showing significant wear and tear.

Depuy believes the Overlook Park project will foster a sense of pride in residents and generations to come once its completed.

“We want things to be nice for our community,” she said. “This is something a little unique to have a community parks. Everyone has a few, but we just want to make sure people are proud of it. We’ve discovered in the past five years that people are using our parks more for entertaining, for graduations, birthday parties, celebrations than they used to. We want to update them so that they’re usable (and) people appreciate using them.”

The project is expected to go out for bid in the fall. Construction would begin sometime next year with a park reopening in spring 2024.

Park plans are posted on the borough website, whitehallboro.org, as well as the administration’s Facebook page. People can also review them at the borough office.

Overlook is not the only major recreation project going on in town.

The borough is expected to spend about $5 million on the replacement of the borough pool. The pool was originally built in 1965 and has not seen a renovation in decades.

It was shutdown in summer 2020. Grand reopening is planned for April 2023.