A facelift for a Boulder Creek park that has seen little use in recent years is officially under way.
Garrahan Park, a grassy park just north of the Boulder Creek just before the Mountain Store on Highway 9, is closed for the summer. Construction crews have started work to remodel the park with barbecues, picnic benches, a gazebo, two new play structures, a walking track around the field, exercise equipment and a new parking lot.
The park is expected to reopen in mid-October.
The Boulder Creek Recreation and Park District hosted a small ground-breaking ceremony July 22 and invited Al and Beth Garrahan and their family, who sold the land for the park to the district for a small price in 1981, in memory of their deceased daughter.
“It’s great getting a facelift for the park,” Patrick Garrahan, the couple’s son, said. “More people will get to use the park, so that’s going to be good. My kids are really looking forward to the new play structure and the walking path for riding their bikes.”
Diane Hamilton, a volunteer who led a task force that designed the park’s new look, also attended the ceremony with her young children.
“I’m thrilled,” Hamilton said. “It’s been a lot of work to get something like this going. I cannot wait to drive by and seen people walking around the track. We don’t have a place to (safely) walk around here.”
The improvements will cost between $260,000 and $270,000, and the work will be completed by contractor CRW, with Fred Reilly as project manager. Money came from several taxpayer-funded grants.
Though it has a large, grassy field, Garrahan Park has been used only by soccer camps, some adult teams and the occasional family in the past couple of years. The dirt parking lot has fallen into disrepair, and the play structure is separated from the field by a wire fence. This summer’s work will correct those failings.
Bob Pilgren of Travis Tree Professionals has donated his time and labor to do some initial work at the park. Other volunteer workers are welcome, recreation board member Eric Hammer said.
There’s more to be done before the park’s funding is complete, too. The grant money ended up about $7,000 short of the expected cost, and some volunteers will launch a nonprofit, Friends of Boulder Creek Recreation, to raise the cash needed to buy exercise equipment that will be set around the walking track, Hammer said. They might sell tiles inscribed with names to help raise the cash.
“This is how we can get the community out there to make this their park,” Hammer said.
