Talks renewed to fix up Jastro Park
Dec. 18—City officials are rehashing efforts once again to prioritize improvements to Bakersfield's historic Jastro Park.
At their City Council meeting Wednesday, Ward 6 Councilwoman Patty Gray said that during the unveiling of the new World War II Veterans Memorial last weekend, she noticed the park needed some fixes.
"I think now with the Korean memorial, the World War II memorial, we need to do something about that," Gray said. "Let's see what we can do to bring that up to date because we have a beautiful place."
The new memorial, built and paid for by private organizers, joins the Korean memorial as the second war monument in the park.
City Manager Christian Clegg responded that while funds have been previously budgeted for fixes to the park, specially the Jastro Park open amphitheater, city staff will likely need to come back and ask for more money.
"Because it's been budgeted for the past two years and again, you've seen many of those construction costs increase," Clegg said at the meeting. "As we're getting into the historic nature of how to remake those balustrades that are placed in concrete. It's challenging to make it match."
The two-square-block park, built in 1936, offers one of the three open theater spaces in the city. It is one of the oldest parks in the city, next to Beale Park, circa 1908. In 2019, the park saw an overhaul of its tennis courts and the addition of pickleball courts to meet a heavy demand. The arena regularly hosts tournaments both private and public.
Two years later, the park received a large chunk — $777,500 — of the $6.2 million funding by the Public Safety and Vital Services Measure for upgrades to its playground and basketball courts. But unlike a jungle gym or swing sets, the Jastro stage is original to the park and technically historic, with strings attached.
Any fix to the facade, given the stage's age, would need approval by the local historical society.
Despite successive petitions that come year after year, damage to the balustrades and tile roofing remains. The structure is also not wheelchair accessible or earthquake compliant, according to Darin Budak, assistant director of the city's parks and recreation department.
"The structure is very old," Budak said. "We have to modernize it with ADA requirements that didn't exist when it was originally built."
City officials are in near total agreement that the park needs to be fixed. It's been on their list for capital improvement projects for years.
"It's taking a little bit longer because it's such a unique, historic structure," Clegg said. "It is in the works, but we may need to come back and adjust the budget for that and we'll take that referral to continue to do that work."
According to Budak, the city is still developing a final plan for improving the stage area, which sits on the west side of the park.
"It has to get through the historical society for review," Budak said. "Based on that, we also have to meet certain requirements to restore it to a state similar to when it was first built."
Gray said that since the price tag will exceed the funds the council already set aside, they will have to plan out additional funding during the new fiscal year, perhaps sometime in March. For now, she encourages citizens to go and see the new memorial.
"Every time I have driven by there in the past week, there are people parking their cars at the memorial, reading all the inscriptions — I encourage citizens to go by and see that," she said.
Budak acknowledges what will likely be a lofty price tag for the park's improvements. But he believes it's an important investment to preserve historical values.
"I think it's nice to preserve for future generations to see how things were run 50 to 70 years ago, or how some things were used then versus how they are used today," Budak said.
