Murrysville incorporates residents' feedback into park improvements

Murrysville Parks and Recreation Director Carly Greene was pleasantly surprised when a group of about 35 people turned out for a May neighborhood parks meeting at Kovalczik Park.

Less than a half-dozen folks showed up at previous park meetings, and this big turnout was the precise reason for hosting them: to get a better sense of the current demographics in municipal neighborhoods and tailor local park improvements to their needs.

“The neighborhood is turning over. New families are moving in, and the tennis court is in disrepair,” Greene said. “These parks were built in the ’60s and ’70s along with the developments that went in. But instead of us just randomly replacing facilities, we wanted to know — are they getting used? Do we need a tennis court in all our parks? Do we need two full basketball courts at Kovalczik?”

Greene said she received about 300 responses to a neighborhoods parks survey posted to the municipal website, about the same number returned for a similar survey focused on Murrysville Community Park’s master plan over the next few years.

Councilman Mac McKenna added that the department is looking to make “easy, cost-effective improvements.”

“They are looking at bench swings in some parks, as well as some park art,” he said. “A lot of people have probably seen things like the metal sculptures at parks in Greensburg.”

Simple, multi-functional improvements could include concrete tables with games like chess and checkers already built into the table-tops, or creating painted areas on the basketball courts where young children could learn to ride a bicycle when a game isn’t taking place.

Greene said the parks department has already purchased new playground equipment that will be installed at Kovalczik Park in 2023. It will coincide with repairs to the basketball court.

“Basketball courts were what kicked off the whole parks survey,” Greene said. “We priced completely gutting the basketball courts and starting from scratch at Bear Hollow Park, and it was going to be upward of $115,000.”

Rather than spend the money and hope the court gets used, Greene opted to get some feedback from residents, which can be incorporated into the municipality’s annual capital improvement plan and address roughly one park each year.

“We just finished Pedora Park this year, and Kovalczik is up next,” Greene said.