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South End pilot parks program to begin community build days, donors to give storage sheds to city
Summary
Nonprofits behind the Enough initiative told Hagerstown council the South End pilot—three sites including Hager Park, Memorial Boulevard walkway and Emmanuel United Methodist Church parking lot—will open this week with volunteer build days and free programming; neighborhood ambassadors will handle maintenance and a research team will evaluate impacts for later, larger investments.
Keith Vanjoy of Samaritan Family and Community Service introduced the Enough community parks initiative and said the group will focus initial work on neighborhood revitalization in Hagerstown’s South End. He introduced Jen Yonker of Vester Community of Hope, who described three pilot activation sites—Hager Park, the Memorial Boulevard walkway (Hager Highway) and a modular play/activities installation at Emmanuel United Methodist Church’s parking lot—and said volunteers will assemble modular play elements this week ahead of first public programming on Monday.
Yonker said each site will feature temporary installations (rock playscapes and extended nature play at Hager Park, performances and reading time, a mini-golf module, and a basketball hoop and pump track at the church parking lot) and that “there will be a storage shed...donated to the city at the end of our programming, for your use” to store modular elements between events. She also said a full research team will observe use patterns "when they're happening, when they're not happening" and that collected data will inform five catalyst projects the group plans to present back to the council in late fall or early winter.
Council members pressed the presenters on routine maintenance and trash pickup; Yonker said neighborhood ambassadors—local residents paid as contractors—will carry out cleanup ‘‘prior to every programming and then following every programming and then, also in between programming.’’ Vanjoy added the pilot nature of the work is intended to test operations before seeking larger public or private investment. The presenters asked the council for feedback rather than immediate funding decisions; no formal council action was recorded in the transcript.
