Construction is well underway on the new Pinecrest Park and Village officials are targeting an early January date for the official opening.

Park gazebo will have multiple uses

"To my knowledge, we are still on target," said Loren Matthews, Pinecrest Director of Parks and Recreation. "We're still looking at middle October or early November for completion, depending on our weather. If we get some foul weather that holds us up, that could put us behind schedule. But, Mother Nature will dictate that.

Carpenter Steve Harrison lines up support beams on the roof of the Pinecrest Park gazebo

"If all goes well, we're looking at January for the league groups to start using the fields," she said. "Because once we get the turf down we'd like it to have a period to set and allow the roots to start growing; give it a few weeks before the heavy use starts."

Nolan Galloway (left), job foreman, and David Kalthoff, both of Structural Roof Systems, prepare beams for installation.

Many motorists passing by the park have wondered about the strange, octagon-shaped structure under construction on the park site at SW 124th Street and 82nd Avenue.

"That's the gazebo," said Matthews. "It's an open-air gazebo that's going to have a lot of uses. It'll be a place for people to get out of the heat. It will have picnic tables beneath the roof so people can sit down and maybe have a bite to eat. If someone wanted to come into the park on their lunch break, they could go into the gazebo and sit down at one of the tables and have lunch."

Matthews added that once groups begin having camps and activities in the park the gazebo would become a focal point and also provide shelter during inclement weather.

"It's quite large and it's a beautiful facility that I'm sure we'll find a lot of uses for," she said.

Also under construction adjacent to the gazebo is the main building that will house the recreation office for the park staff, as well as a large, open-space multi-purpose room that will be used primarily for camp activities, but may also be used as a meeting room for sports groups and for registration activities.

"I think they're even going to have the Village Council meetings there until the municipal center is built," Matthews said.

The other part of the main building will house the electrical rooms, janitorial rooms, bathrooms and an attached concession stand.

The park site once was the location of the old Fowler Trailer Park. The Village acquired the property for a park almost two years ago and began clearing the land early last year. The total cost for acquisition and development of the site was pegged at $7.3 Million. The Village received a $2,189,000 grant from the county's Safe Neighborhood and Parks bond program and a $100,000 grant from the State Recreation and Parks Department.