Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski cut the ribbon this afternoon to open the completely re-designed Stevens Park at Sixth and Tilghman streets. Pawlowski was assisted by City Council President Ray O’Connell, Council Vice President Daryl Hendricks, Councilpersons Cynthia Mota and Candida Affa, staff from the Department of Parks & Recreation and neighborhood representatives.

The more than $650,000 project includes fully accessible playgrounds with poured in place safety surfacing for children ages 3 to 5 years and 5 to 12, a half basketball court, a stage, a new picnic pavilion complete with a food prep table, new walkways, seating, trees, landscaping and security cameras.

“This is a fantastic facility that can be enjoyed by children and adults,” Pawlowski said. “It is a tremendous improvement that is very important to the people of this inner-city neighborhood. The pavilion is available for rental by the community for their picnics and family celebrations and gatherings of any type.”

“We are so very excited to open the new and improved Stevens Park,” said Department of Parks & Recreation Director Lindsay L. Taylor. “The park’s design resulted from the extensive community input that we received and it was a process so successful that we are using it going forward with other park planning projects. We believe the members of the community will be as happy with the park as we are because it directly reflects their input and ideas.”

The City’s Movies in the Park program will come to Stevens Park on Friday, June 9 with the showing of Disney’s “Moana.”

The renovation cost approximately $600,000 for construction and $54,000 for design. It was paid for with $350,000 in CDBG funding, a $250,000 Pennsylvania DCNR grant and matching City funds.

Semmel Excavating of Allentown was the general contractor on the project. Subcontracted work was completed by Rohrbach Concrete of Allentown and Playground Pros of Newmanstown, PA. Andrew Mears, RLA of Johnson, Miriam & Thompson (JMT) was the Landscape Architect that worked with City staff on the design process.

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