It doesn’t look like much today, but by late summer of next year there should be a beautiful public park on this site and shouts of "play ball" will be a familiar refrain. That is the projection of Pinecrest Village Manager Peter Lombardi.

"We’re hoping to have Pinecrest Park completed and open by late summer of the year 2000," said Lombardi, who pegs the total cost for acquisition and development of the old Fowler Trailer Park site off S. Dixie Highway (US 1) at SW 124th Street and 82nd Avenue at $7.3 Million.

"We 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 to help offset the costs," he said.

The master plan for the ambitious project calls for two lighted kids league baseball fields, a pair of batting cages, two soccer fields, a tot-lot playground and, for the physical fitness enthusiasts, an eight-foot wide jogging track with an eight-station fitness course.

The site will be irrigated throughout its 10 acres, have parking for 150 automobiles and there will be a 600-square-foot storage building on the premises. Preliminary drawings also call for a fountain at the main entrance on 124th Street.

"The park will be heavily landscaped on all perimeters to act as a buffer to park activities for the surrounding residential areas," Lombardi said. "And once open and operating, it will close at 10 p.m."

Wolfberg/Alvarez is the local architectural firm preparing final plans and bid specifications for the property. O’Leary Design Associates is the landscape architectural firm.

The Village of Pinecrest closed on the property in April and acquired it for a public park after the site’s former owners won a lengthy court battle with longtime residents who had lived in trailers on the property. The courts ruled that the property owners had the legal right to sell the land after giving appropriate notice to the tenants.

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