North Belle Vernon park plan advances

After months of effort, North Belle Vernon Councilman R.J. Sokol's master plan to overhaul Graham Street Park is looking like it's going to come to fruition.

North Belle Vernon will be the recipient of a $159,000 grant through the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' Community Conservation Partnership Program.

The grant will allow Sokol's master plan to take shape.

The plan calls for:

• Removing tennis courts and the chain-link fence.

• Constructing a synthetic turf soccer field surrounded by a 20-foot fence.

• Razing the current children's playground and installing a state-of-the-art playground built to the highest safety standards.

• Constructing a dek hockey court.

• Installing a special screen-printed safety padding around the soccer field and dek hockey court.

• Removing outdated lighting and installing LED lighting for the entire park.

• Constructing a new restroom facility that will meet ADA and safety standards.

• Miscellaneous work and updates on existing structures.

Sokol has vowed that the park will no longer be just a park, but a facility that will be utilized, not just by North Belle Vernon residents, but residents of the entire Mid-Mon Valley.

“It will allow the Belle Vernon Area youth soccer organization and the BVA high school and middle school teams an extra facility to utilize to their advantage,” Sokol said in a prepared release. “We will also be offering the park to non-profit organizations to hold functions there at no cost to the organization.”

Sokol reiterated that the grant is designated specifically for park and recreation development.

Being a matching grant, the state will match monetary donations, volunteer work and usage donations for heavy equipment and special tools.

“We are hopeful that through the parks and recreation programs of the Mon Valley communities, residents can form a common bond to help each other keep our communities alive and well,” Sokol said. “It's our hope that the park can help people of the Valley in many different ways.”

Sokol, a former councilman, was reappointed to a seat when Betty Shine-Hill died in May. Since then, he has been working to make this project a reality as a way to make the park better and keep out undesirable activity, such as drug activity and vandalism.

The effort to redo the park and the addition of surveillance cameras have had an impact on that problem as Sokol has said there have not been signs of either in the recent past.

Sokol said he is hoping that a website will be formed to promote activities at all of the Mid-Mon Valley parks such as Monessen's City Park, Donora's Palmer Park and Monongahela's Chess Park.

“Residents can use it as a tool to explore what is taking place in the Valley ... for everyone to enjoy,” Sokol said in his release.

Jeremy Sellew is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at jsellew@tribweb.com or 724-684-2667.