City Celebrates Fitness Park Opening

The sun blazed down on Grand Terrace’s first fitness park last Wednesday, June 26, but that didn’t deter residents from gathering at the park’s tennis courts. They were joined by City Staff and Council members to celebrate its grand opening. The park has been completed after roughly four months of construction since the groundbreaking ceremony earlier this year in mid-February. Funded by the $1.8 million 2006 Clean Water Bond Act awarded from the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation, and constructed by Hamel Contracting, Inc., the Fitness Park features a walking path, tennis court, playground areas, exercise stations, restrooms and a demonstration garden detailed by environmentally conservative landscaping, with a total of 63 identification signs that detail the various plant materials and larger, educational signs describing the features of the garden provided by the Riverside Highland Water Company. Webb & Associates worked as the project manager to obtain public input on the design of the park, and two years of park maintenance funding was provided by the Jacobsen family. As children played on the playground just outside the tennis courts, Mayor Walt Stanckiewitz addressed the community with the history of how the park came to be. “The Fitness Park has been made possible between a joint effort of the City of Grand Terrace and multiple agencies and members of the community. This is the first amenity the City has been able to provide to this section of the community,” he said. Facing tight budget issues, Stanckiewitz shared, the Fitness Park was a project that might not have come to fruition if not for the public’s tenacity and desire to bring it to Grand Terrace. “About a year and a half ago, [the City Council] had a meeting with the neighborhood. Some of us were of the intention that we probably should give [the $1.8 million Clean Water Bond Act] grant back to the state, because we didn’t know, after we got the park built, how we were going to be able to maintain it. We already were feeling tense. When we started talking with the neighborhood … they all said, ‘Please don’t do that. We will do whatever we have to do, but don’t take this park away from our neighborhood.’ That argument was so convincing that it changed some of our minds and we decided, ‘Let’s go forward with it and let’s make this happen.’ Here we are today.” Residents who were out enjoying the park’s amenities that day were in agreement that the park was a beneficial addition to the community. Stephanie Carr, a lifelong Grand Terrace resident who lives around the corner from the park, brought her five-year-old son Tyler out for the event. The two looked forward to the park’s opening with anticipation, she shared. “We’ve been waiting forever. We were at the groundbreaking and every day … we would drive by and stop and see their progress. We’re really happy it’s here,” she said, adding that she and her son plan to visit the park often. Kevin Caldwell, who lives next door to the park, brought his daughters Hannah and Saraya for the event, and shared that the park is a good place for neighborhood kids to go. “Everything’s so condensed, there’s nowhere for kids to play. This is less than a five-minute walk, and [Hannah and Saraya] have been waiting for this [park] to open up for months.” City Council Member Jackie Mitchell, former Citizens on Patrol (COP) volunteer, agreed that the park gives children a safe place to hang out. “I used to come down this area [as a COP volunteer] and there would be kids hanging out on the street. Now they can go to the Fitness Park. It’s a safe place for them,” she said. The City of Grand Terrace, said Mayor Stanckiewitz, thanks the Riverside Highland Water Company, Albert A. Webb & Associates, Hamel Contracting, Inc., Jacobsen Family Holdings LLC, the California Department of Parks and Recreation, the California Natural Resources Agency, the Office of the Governor: Edmund G. Brown Jr., the California Housing and Community Development, and park committee members. The Fitness Park is located at 21937 Grand Terrace Road, north of Barton Road and west of the 215 freeway.