Hempfield Township plans to build new community park
A Westmoreland County community is getting a new park.
Brittany Luczki spent part of Thursday with her kids at Hempfield Park.
“Our school is having their picnic for the kids, end of the school year, and so we’ve always liked to come to Hempfield Park the last few years,” Luczki said.
With four kids of her own, she’s always looking for something for them to do – especially in the summer months. Hearing that Hempfield Township is looking to build a new community park with a splash pad is welcome news.
“We live right by there, so it’ll be great for them to get to go to,” Luczki said.
“There’s a great opportunity here to provide recreation that hasn’t been provided in this area in a long time,” said Aaron Siko, Hempfield Township Manager.
Township officials approved a bid to transform a site off of Weatherwood Lane, right off Route 30, into a new municipal campus.
It’s a 43-acre piece of land. The township will dedicate 14 acres to recreation and park space. That includes the Weatherwood Community Park.
“With that, we are looking at that splash pad, the nature play area, the fitness areas,” Siko said.
So far though, the township has rejected the only bid it received to build the park and splash pad. The estimate came in at $5.9 million, $1.5 million more than the township was expecting.
“With that, we’re going to take an opportunity to rescope and put that out for a longer bid period to entice more bidders to hopefully take a look at this and then we can get more competitive pricing whenever we move to construction,” Siko said.
The whole project would cost about $16 million. It’s something Luczki thinks is worth it.
“Certainly, giving back to the community and giving a place for kids to be safe and for families to go to is probably one of the best things they can do,” she said.
Township officials tell Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek they want to have all of the land on Weatherwood Lane cleared out and the municipal campus and park open by the end of summer 2025.
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