MANSFIELD — Sterkel Park will get a facelift thanks to a $60,000 Sterkel Fund grant.
The grant money will enable the Mansfield Parks Department to hire a park planner to design and create a new layout and ideas for Sterkel Park.
One idea is to add some walking/running trails.
According to Mark Abrams, parks department manager, Sterkel Park had trails in the early 80s that were used for various activities, including cross country skiing.
Trails could help increase accessibility to the park from Sterkel Boulevard, where several facilities and businesses (Richland Public Health, the Mansfield YMCA, CenturyLink, etc.) are located, park officials believe.
Currently, the park can only be accessed from Hollywood Lane.
Abrams said a meeting will be held with Friends of Sterkel Park to brainstorm ideas for improving the park.
“We’ll get input from them to see what they would like to incorporate, since it’s their neighborhood,” he said.
Sterkel Park is roughly 25 acres and includes a pavilion, playground equipment–which will be replaced at some point this year–and four tennis courts that haven’t been used in about 20 years. Abrams said the cost to repair the tennis courts runs around $77,000.
JP Morgan serves as the trustee of the Sterkel Fund. According to a letter from Tina Gonzalez, JP Morgan grants manager, the grant money must be used by Oct. 31.
