Residents plan for improvements on Cottonwood Community Park

Broken glass and disrepair makes Cottonwood Community Park an uninviting place to play. But two meetings captured the attention of 18 Cottonwood residents last week who produced several ideas to improve Cottonwood Community Park. But the group already moved past just considering improvements, park activities director Mary O'Keeffe said.

Several community members offered to investigate costs of improvement proposals, and Roger Janis offered to build a bicycle rack, she said.

The committee prioritized the park needs, beginning with improved lighting.

"We discussed somethings at the park that need to be done. There's no security," Cottonwood resident Paul Martin said. "We have vandals tearing stuff up out there, breaking park benches. We need money to secure the park and put in stuff for kids to play on."

Several of the lights at the park are broken, and we felt it was a security issue, O'Keeffe said.

The committee also requested a drinking fountain, a bike rack, tables, benches and a new barbecue.

The group also discussed enlarging the cement pad to put in a basketball court.

The meeting was a joint effort between the Cottonwood Community Park and Latinos in Action. The next meeting, also open to Cottonwood residents, is scheduled for Feb. 11 at 5:30 a.m. at the Cottonwood Community Center, 20595 Gas Point Rd.

Recent clean-up activities at the park included the efforts of Frank Antognazzi, who used a tractor to collect the rubble of broken down park benches into one pile, O'Keeffe said.

She also thanked the Cottonwood Fire Protection District for burning a brush pile at the park.

Both O'Keeffe and Martin stressed that the park committee was in need of money, volunteers and local support to turn the park into a point of community pride.