Royal Palm Beach Parks & Recreation Director Lou Recchio reported on planned recreational capital improvements at the Royal Palm Beach Recreation Advisory Board meeting Monday.
He listed the 3-acre Lindsay Ewing Park on Linnet Lane as one of the larger improvements. The $200,000 project is scheduled for next year.
“We’re looking at the perimeter, replacing the fencing and putting in a walkway so folks can walk, and it’ll tie in with the rest of village hall,” he said, noting that the project also puts in a new playscape.
Two other playscapes are also budgeted, at a cost of $200,000.
“I’m going to recommend a change here,” Recchio said. “We’ve been on a replacement schedule where we replace our playscapes as needed. We just did Willows Park. We are getting ready to do Todd Robiner Park, and after that, I think the rest of our playscapes are in pretty good shape.”
In 2013, Recchio said that he would like to add a playscape at Crestwood Park on Pinewood Blvd. “Right now it’s comprised of a dog park, two 32-foot picnic pavilions, two basketball courts, it has a paved walking/jogging trail and it’s like an open field, so if you want to go out and throw a Frisbee, kick a ball around, you can do it with no issues,” he said. “But there’s nothing there for the kids. I think [a playscape] would serve that part of the community well.”
There are also plans to replace the kitchen equipment and bathrooms at the Royal Palm Beach Cultural Center at a cost of $150,000. “Between the Cultural Center and the Recreation Center, these buildings are quite old,” Recchio said. “We’re looking at upward of 20 years now, and the kitchen has never been renovated or worked on. The bathrooms really need to be retiled and given a good facelift.”
The building is used not only for a rental facility at night, but as a senior center during the day. “There is a lot going on inside the kitchen, and there’s a lot more traffic in there than we’ve had before,” he said. “It really needs it. It’s starting to show its age.”
Also on the plan are improvements to Field 5 at Willows Park at a cost of $350,000. “We’ve applied for a $200,000 grant,” Recchio said. “We should hear a yea or nay on that sometime in July… We should be able to start that just in time for our new budget year.”
There are also plans to buy two trucks for $60,000 and two mowers at a cost of $16,000.
“We visit that every year, and if the trucks seem to be fine, that will not take place this year. Same thing with the mowers, but the mowers are run so much every year that replacing two mowers a year is pretty much the norm,” he said. “They literally get worn out.”
Recchio stressed that because an item is on the capital projects list at a certain time doesn’t always mean it’s going to happen then. “Funding always changes,” he said.
The board also welcomed Councilman Fred Pinto as its new liaison, and Felicia Matula was elected the board’s chair.
