Community Park projects expected to make progress before Cranberry Summer Nights in July
On Tuesday evening, June 9, Cranberry Township officials shared information about parks and recreation projects in the works with the community at the township’s Municipal Center.
In a recent interview with the Butler Eagle, Kyle Beidler, the township’s assistant manager, also shared updates on two of the major parks projects underway — improvements to Community Park and North Boundary Park.
Beidler said both are in the middle of earthwork, which is expected to make serious headway before Cranberry Summer Nights from July 9 to 11. The event is scheduled to take place at Community Park.
He added the timeline is weather dependent.
“If the weather holds out, we’re hoping to wrap that up to the mid- to late summer,” Beidler said. “Come early July, we should be substantially complete, and that allows us to really start using some portions of that parking during that event.”
Beidler said Summer Nights is the biggest event of the year for the township and brings in 20,000 people over the course of three days.
“We’re always thinking about, how do we continue to host that event and still be able to make these improvements throughout the park system,” Beidler said.
The work at Community Park sprung from the township’s comprehensive recreation plan drafted in 2012, which found the site to be outdated.
One “deficit,” Beidler said, was that each field at the park was built for a single type of activity. Three new multipurpose fields that can accommodate various activities are being built to address this shortcoming.
The first phase of the project, which took place in 2023, saw the removal of the former dog park to make room for new athletic fields, Beidler said.
Synthetic turf installation at two of Community Parks’ baseball fields and the soccer field at North Boundary Park is also in the works, Beidler said.
The turf will extend the hours of play and availability of fields, he added.
Also part of the renovations is a “court complex master plan,” which tackles the quadrant of the Community Park that contains several courts which Beidler said have been declining in quality.
The master plan’s first phase, which has been completed, included revamping tennis courts as well as adding to the public pickleball courts.
“Our pickleball program has been very, very successful in Graham Park,” Beidler said. “We run that as an association, and there’s more demand than we currently have space over there.”
Phase two of the plan entails improvements for the sand volleyball and basketball courts, Beidler said, for which the township received a $256,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Phase two is in preliminary design, and the projected completion of construction is Cranberry Summer Nights in 2028, Beidler said.
Phrase three will work on the amphitheater on-site.
“We want to do more of the earthwork that creates that natural amphitheater,” Beidler said. A pavilion and additional bathroom features are among other considerations for phase three.
“These initiatives are critical in maintaining Cranberry’s standing as a premiere community within this region,” Beidler said at the township’s April 30 meeting.
At the subsequent meeting on May 7, the board of supervisors voted unanimously to approve partial payments for the Community Park North project.
These payments include $315,098 to Thomas Construction for general construction, $17,644 to Shipley Plumbing for plumbing work and $310,266 to McCurley Houston Electric for electrical work.
Additionally, the board voted to pay $73,189 to Playing Surface Solutions for field turf work at North Boundary park’s soccer field.
