Committee advances transfer of Trexler and Cedar Beach funds for Roosevelt Park spray park

The Allentown City Parks and Recreation Committee on Monday moved forward Bill 78, a proposal to reallocate two small capital balances into a Roosevelt Park project account to fund a spray park.

"Bill 78 amends the 2025 Trexler Fund by authorizing a supplemental appropriation from the inappropriate balance of the fund in the amount of $77,805 and an appropriation from the Cedar Beach Improvement Funds in the amount of $1,684.91 to the Roosevelt Park Capital Project," said Mr. Hamlin, who introduced the bill to the committee.

Parks staff described the transfer as a bookkeeping and project‑completion move. "So this is taking funding that was awarded from [the Trexler] trust and putting it into a project account and then taking the remaining money that was left in the Cedar Beach account, because that project is complete or near completion, and responding to a request that came out of our parks comprehensive plan, which was to do a spray park at Roosevelt," said Miss Talino, the department staff member presenting the item.

Talino said final design details remain undecided. She told the committee the project team plans to tear down a vacant building on site that already has water and electric and expects to add "some additional features, not just a flat concrete pad," depending on available funding.

A committee member moved to forward Bill 78 to the full council meeting and the committee chair seconded; the committee voiced assent and the bill was forwarded for consideration at tonight's council meeting.

The committee did not take a final council vote on the bill; the action at the committee level was to advance the legislation to the full council. Additional design specifics and the final project budget were not specified during the committee discussion.