VP planning to overhaul pair of parks

Families of Ville Platte may be able to look forward to updates and additions that will be made at two of the city’s parks.
Ville Platte Mayor Jennifer Vidrine called two separate meetings this past week so that she could share the plans for each park with the people who will be using them the most. “I wanted to call these meetings to inform the public of the improvements to be made at the parks and to get the publics input on the future plans,” said Vidrine.
With a map showing the changes that would be made to the parks, those who attended the meetings were able to view changes that Vidrine estimated will cost $300,000.00 of grant money for each site. All of the grant money has yet to be secured for the project.
At Hargrove Park, located on the South side of town, the city has planned to use the existing baseball field as an area for pavilions. There will be 17 new pavilions added in that area of the park. Within the center of the pavilions there will be a splash pad for children to enjoy.
At Northside Park, the city will use one of the practice softball fields for the same purpose. The only difference will be that there will only be room to fit 10 new pavilions, but there will also be a splash pad in the center of these new pavilions as well.
The practice Dixie Youth field will be kept at Northside Park for practice purposes, while the other field will be there for recreational purposes.
The Northside Park will also gain a new basketball court and walking track. Hargrove Park, which already has an existing walking track, will have benches and trees for shade along the track.
The mayor also plans to add workout equipment to give people the opportunity to perform light stretches after a walk around the track if they wish to do so.
No one in attendance at the town hall meetings voiced any issues with the park designs but there were concerns about how these areas would be kept safe for families that visit.
The mayor immediately addressed this concern by stating, “We will have cameras out at each park that will be monitored at the police station so that if something inappropriate is happening the police will see. During the busier months we also plan to have an officer that will patrol the areas.”
When it came to the public informing the mayor of what they would like to see at the parks, people in attendance asked if hookups could be added to accommodate RVs and campers.
Although the mayor liked this suggestion, providing hookups to accommodate campers would have to be something that happened a little later down the road.
As far as when construction will begin at the parks, Vidrine said, “Weather permitting we will begin immediate updates in late December and will try to have both parks ready for the public to enjoy by this coming summer.”