Jacobsville residents ask council to add park budget line and make repairs; parks meeting scheduled

At the Sept. 22 Common Council meeting, Walter Branson Bennett, a member of the JNI Neighborhood Improvement Association, asked the council to add Jacobsville Park to the city parks budget and listed a set of maintenance and amenity requests.

Bennett told the council he represents approximately 25 association members who live in or own property in Jacobsville and said the neighborhood has a roughly 2% vacancy rate. He requested the following additions or changes for Jacobsville Park (the lot near Baker and Oregon streets): restore or replace a larger swing removed from the park; replace slippery mulch with a safer surfacing material and improve soil/water retention where appropriate; construct a half basketball court using the same surface material as the Fulton Park court (with the applicant noting the proposed court could be 24 feet narrower than Fulton Park’s shortest dimension); add a water fountain; install two additional picnic tables; add a weatherproof gazebo to a future wish list; repair or replace play apparatus that has sunken and collects runoff; and add public dumpsters at three nearby locations to improve neighborhood sanitation.

Bennett also requested a laser printer and two boxes of paper for the neighborhood association and said the group had signed up for a city neighborhood program ("100,000 Focus" through DMD) and is seeking follow-up details. He said a submission to the city controller has been filed and could be amended after a neighborhood meeting on Sept. 26.

Parks staff and council members told Bennett there is a meeting scheduled the next day at 6 p.m. at the C.K. Newsom (likely a parks meeting for Third and Fourth Ward parks) where Jacobsville representatives could present their requests.

Ending: Bennett left a written submission with the clerk; parks staff encouraged neighborhood representatives to attend the scheduled meeting to discuss specific budget and maintenance steps.