Splash pad, game tables, walking paths coming to west Modesto park with $8.5M grant
Modesto has been awarded another $8.5 million state grant to renovate and remake a park in one of its poorer neighborhoods.
California State Parks announced Wednesday the city has been awarded the grant for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park in west Modesto. (The park had been known as Mellis Park until the City Council in February approved renaming it in honor of the assassinated civil rights leader.)
The grant will be used for building a new splash pad, outdoor basketball court, lighted baseball-softball field, game tables, parking lots, lighted soccer field, about 1,700 feet of walking paths, an event stage with plaza, restrooms, and lighting and security cameras throughout the park, according to the city.
The grant also will pay for the addition of a gymnasium to the King-Kennedy Memorial Center, which is next to the park, as well as improvements to park landscaping.
“This is going to be a good thing for the community,” said Perfecto Munoz, executive director of the West Modesto Community Collaborative, which runs the King-Kennedy Memorial Center for the city. “... This will really become a community park as opposed to just being a park.”
Munoz said the park improvements came out of a series of meetings a couple of years ago in which residents talked about what they wanted. Some west Modesto residents had complained that city officials long ignored their community.
Talented, dedicated staff
The new gym is important because young people now have to play outdoors, which is not practical during the winter, Munoz said. He added the gym also will be a better venue for community meetings because it will be bigger than the center’s auditorium.
This is the second California State Parks grant the city has received in almost two years to remake a park in one of its poorer and more diverse neighborhoods. Modesto was awarded an $8.5 million grant in February 2020 to remake Cesar E. Chavez Park, including building an aquatic center, soccer field, lighted picnic pavilion and a plaza for skateboarders.
“I am so proud of our talented and dedicated parks planning staff who worked hard to submit a winning grant application,” Parks, Recreation and Neighborhoods Director Laurie Smith said in a city news release about the latest grant. “With these funds, the city will be able to provide added recreational value to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park and deliver first-class recreational amenities to residents for years to come.”
The grants are from California State Parks’ statewide park development and community revitalization program. These are competitive grants for creating new parks and recreation opportunities in underserved communities.
One-quarter awarded funds
Modesto’s grant application was among the roughly one-quarter of the applications that California State Parks decided to fund.
State Parks reported receiving 468 grant applications seeking $2.42 billion and announced it had awarded $548.3 million in funding for 112 of those applications. Fifty are for new parks, and 62 are for expansions and renovations of existing parks.
Smith said in the city news release that Modesto has to complete “a lot of background work ... before residents start to see construction equipment” at MLK Park. “The city expects to have a grant contract finalized with the state by spring 2022, which means that preliminary design would start in early 2023 followed by an estimated completion date in fall 2024.”
An update on the city’s progress in remaking Chavez Park was not immediately available Thursday morning.
Modesto has sought $8.5 million in State Parks grant funding since 2019 for Cesar Chavez and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park, as well as Mancini Park in south Modesto. After getting funding for Chavez, the city reapplied this year for MLK and Mancini parks.
Committed to park improvements
While Modesto did not receive funding for Mancini in this round, Smith has said the city would continue to look for funding to pay for park improvements.
State Parks reported Wednesday that the $548.3 million for the 112 grant awards comes from $153 million approved by the Legislature in California’s current budget and $395.3 million from Proposition 68, aka the California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection and Outdoor Access for All Act of 2018.
Tuesday’s grant awards were the statewide park development and community revitalization program’s fourth round. State Parks reported providing $1.16 billion in funding through the four rounds from several funding sources.
