Fireman’s Park is closed for construction until June.
The park, which had already closed for swimming for the season, is getting a major upgrade this fall and upcoming spring.
KSW Construction has fenced off the park as it begins rebuilding the entire area and beyond with splash pads, a new open-air park pavilion, a basketball court, a new playground, a new parking lot, redesigned soccer fields and a connecting trail segment to County Hwy. M. The project will run over an eight-and-a-half month time span.
Parks and urban forestry director Dave Walker said the upgrades are scheduled to be done by June 19, 2019, when the beach would normally open for the summer season.
“When it’s done, this will be quite the destination,” he told the Press on Friday.
KSW began to remove some of the fencing at the park last week and will begin excavating the current park shelter this week, Walker said.
The “aggressive” project timeline is being split into three phases, he said.
The fall months will involve the complete destruction of the shelter and the pouring of the foundation of the new one, grading of soccer fields so that they can be used in a year and the pulverizing of the current asphalt on the parking lot. The winter months will see the rebuilding of the park shelter.
In the spring, depending on the weather, the splash pads, playground, the bike path connection and landscaping will be installed.
“We’ve been working on this for a couple of years,” he said. “We’re pretty excited … I think it’ll see a multiple-fold increase in use.”
