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Frisco to renovate Youth Center Park; officials hope to open spray ground at Bi-Centennial Park by Memorial Day
By Ann Marie Shambaugh, Staff Writer
Frisco’s oldest park is about to get a facelift, but the final product is yet to be determined.
About 20 downtown Frisco residents gathered at the Parks and Recreation administration offices Monday night to discuss the fate of Youth Center Park, a 4-acre neighborhood park near Main Street and North County Road.
The park features a baseball field, a basketball court, playground area, and picnic tables, but two major amenities will soon be removed. Earlier this year the City Council voted to close the municipal pool, and the former community theater building is expected to be demolished early next year.
“There is no slide anymore, there is no diving board,” resident Pam Alexander said. “It’s a bath tub.”
Parks Planning Manager Dudley Raymond said that a spray park planned for the expansion of nearby Bi-Centennial Park will provide a cool place for neighborhood children to play. He also said that the spray park should not be built on the site of the pool in Youth Center Park because of the expected crowds.
“If we put a spray ground in there, it would be overrun with traffic,” Raymond said.
City officials are hoping the spray park will be completed by the beginning of the outdoor pool season next year. Some residents, however, said they would rather see improvements stay in Youth Center Park.
“The revitalization of downtown is going by the wayside, and this is one more thing that’s being pulled out,” resident Roslyn Rood said.
Raymond said that about $500,000 is allocated in next year’s budget for improvements to Youth Center Park. City officials are considering using the funds to convert the pool restrooms into an open air pavilion, plant trees along the parking lot, or create a backstop area for baseball practice.
“It’s in need of some capital investment put back in it,” Raymond said.
The city is working with Jacobs Consultancy on the Youth Center Park renovations. The firm designed Frisco Commons Park, which the city hopes to connect to Youth Center Park with a sidewalk. Raymond said the renovated park will meet the same quality standards as Frisco Commons and other newer parks.
“There’s no reason to think when we get done with Youth Center, it won’t be another great park in our inventory,” Raymond said.
City officials expect to hold another public meeting on proposed park changes early next year.
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