ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 9, 1997 TAG: 9703100091
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-7 EDITION: METRO
SERIES: Problems in the parks a special report
SOURCE: DAN CASEY THE ROANOKE TIMES
The good news is that the city has recognized the problem and moved to improve some facilities. The bad news is that money for such work may be limited.
The bathrooms at the baseball diamonds behind Breckinridge Middle School are a stinking mess of chipped paint, broken fixtures and graffiti.
Norma Smith wishes she had a bathroom or picnic shelter in Perry Park in Southwest.
At Strauss Park in Northwest, there's a big hole in one basketball backboard; the other backboard is rotting. Paint is peeling off a large corkscrew-type slide.
The basketball court in lower Washington Park has ruts and bumps that could throw Michael Jordan off balance. The tennis courts are cracking and dingy; discarded pocketbooks lie in mud at the head of a stream.
After a decent rain, the water can get ankle-deep on the baseball diamond at Garden City Park, and mud flows across the grass.
By contrast, Elmwood Park downtown sports carefully tended trees, green grass and beautifully maintained walkways, lights and other fixtures.
Antique-style street lanterns stand on the edge of the irrigated and manicured soccer fields at River's Edge athletic complex in South Roanoke. The bathrooms are sparkling clean.
Just down Wiley Drive in Smith Park is a huge, bright yellow and blue complex of playground equipment set on a bed of soft wood chips. It was donated to the city by a fraternal club in 1994. Large shade trees tower over the site, which includes a brick picnic shelter.
The discrepancies have not been lost on Roanoke's park users.
"Those parks have been fixed up real nice," Charles Bonds said of River's Edge and Smith Park as he watched his 4-year-old son, "Little Charles," and 7-year-old stepson, Shawn Johnson, play on rusting equipment at Washington Park recently. "I guess we'll just have to complain more."
Laura Williams lives in Northeast Roanoke within walking distance of Preston Park. Yet less than two weeks ago, she took her son Brandon, age 2, and daughter Caitlyn, 11 months, across town to play at Smith Park.
"The slide at Preston Park is metal, and there's no trees or shade around it," Williams explained. "And last year, Brandon burned his leg on it. We won't be going back there."
The differences have not been lost on city politicians.
Last June, Mayor David Bowers upbraided the city administration for allowing cars on Highland park's grassy fields while at the same time barring kids and their dogs from the reserved athletic fields in South Roanoke.
"I hear about it," Councilman William White said. "[Constituents] notice the difference."
The fact is, many of the city's parks are aging and weathered. Few if any major capital expenditures have been made on them in the last 10 years.
A big push to improve Roanoke's parks that began in 1981 lost steam in 1987, shortly after River's Edge was completed. Including $300,000 in renovations to the nearby Parks and Recreation headquarters on Reserve Avenue, that cost $3.25 million.
Improvements such as landscaping, shelters and equipment upgrades to all the rest of the city's neighborhood or school parks in the 1980-92 period totalled less than that: about $3.15 million, according to Lynn Vernon, city park planner.
In addition, about $500,000 was spent on Mill Mountain Park, and almost $2 million was spent on six plazas in or near downtown, including Elmwood Park.
Much of the 1981 plan has never been fulfilled: There are no fitness trails, which consultants called for in many parks; Washington Park never got an amphitheater or a new baseball diamond; Lakewood Park and Strauss Park never got parking.
"It's my assessment that the 1981 plan was followed up until 1987, and at that point there was no funding," said John Coates, city park director. "Other projects took priority in capital funding."
This year, for the first time in a decade, residents are beginning to see some improvements.
City Council gave Parks and Recreation about $750,000 for park upgrades and about $350,000 more to buy equipment such as dump trucks and mowers. Improvements began last summer.
Eureka Park's steamy recreation center finally got central air conditioning. Some new playground equipment - similar to the brightly painted complex at Smith Park - is being installed at Eureka. Perry and Sunrise parks will get new playgrounds, too.
The city will replace 1960s-style steel bathrooms in at least two parks. And Coates has put tennis and basketball courts on a regular cycle for resurfacing.
Other improvements, if any, will depend on what consultants recommend - and City Council's willingness to spend the money at a time when revenue growth is slowing, needs are growing and some residents are asking for tax cuts.
"It's money and manpower," Coates said. "I could take you to just about any facility we have, and we could come away with a list of needed repairs."
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. JANEL RHODA THE ROANOKE TIMES. Basketball courts likeby CNBthis one in lower Washington Park - full of ruts and bumps - moved
the city to put tennis and basketball courts on a regular cycle for
resurfacing. 2. ERIC BRADY THE ROANOKE TIMES. Deteriorating
playground equipment like this at Loudon Park is being replaced at
some sites, including Eureka, Perry and Sunrise parks. color.
Graphic: Chart: What you can do. color. KEYWORDS: MGR