The Veterans Wayside Park is getting a thorough cleaning and a facelift that will make it a friendlier facility for picnickers.

“We’re getting rid of all the exotic plants so that all the foliage that grows there is indigenous to the area,” said Loren Mathews, Pinecrest director of Parks and Recreation. “We want to make it very passive, but a nice park for people to stop and have lunch or throw some bread to the ducks. We’ll put covered picnic tables on the grounds and have better parking, so it will be a little more accessible.”

Mathews also said there is money budgeted for a landscape and design plan for the park, which fronts the Pinecrest Parkway (So. Dixie Highway) and 112 Street, but plans have not been finalized.

“The plan has not been designed yet,” she said, “but it definitely is in this year’s budget. “Meantime, we’re just sprucing it up, making it a centerpiece for Pinecrest because it’s right there on the highway.”

Mathews said she also was considering the possibility of putting a fountain in the pond.

“We’re cleaning out the pond and we’re looking at putting a fountain in the middle of it so we can aerate the water more,” she said. “We want to make it a park that really highlights the Village.

“It’ll become a much prettier park for anybody that wants to sit and have a picnic,” she continued.

Mathews said the name of the park remains Veterans Wayside Park, though the Kendall designation will be deleted from the marking signs.

Completion of work on the park is slated for the end of the summer next year.

PINECREST PARK UPDATE

Meantime, Mathews said the Village Council has approved development plans for the new Pinecrest Park at 128 Street and she now expected construction to start in early January. 

“I think it’s going to go out to bid any day now,” she said. “Hopefully, right after the first of the year, we’ll be able to break ground.”

Mathews conceded that completion of the new park now appeared slated for the latter part of next year, rather than the end of the summer as previously announced. She attributed the delay to the time-consuming bid process.

SUNILAND PARK UPDATE

 Additional upgrades also are on the drawing board for Suniland Park.

Mathews revealed that the existing recreation building at Suniland soon would be razed and another built in its place.

 “We’re going to make it a much more workable building,” she said. “Right now, it’s not functional the way it’s built. There’s not enough room for people to get under cover from outside if it rains.”

Mathews said she had no timetable for the demolition and re-construction