The City of Windsor is highlighting improvements to a park in the South Walkerville neighbourhood.
The city is spending around $880,000 on upgrades in Stodgell Park, right in the area of Kildare Road and Senaca Street.
The work in and around the six-acre park includes a new parking lot west of the playground, a new 680-metre multi-use trail installed around the park, and new solar lights and waste receptacles. The work took place throughout 2022 at a cost of around $650,000.
Stodgell Park also has an accessible creative playground structure with rubber surfacing, an installation that cost $250,000.
Later this year, the city will also install nine benches equipped with concrete pads, plant 30 more trees throughout the park, and install two soccer field posts and nets in the spring.
Executive Director of Parks and Facilities for the City of Windsor, James Chacko (left), Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens (centre) and Ward 4 city councillor Mark McKenzie (right) take part in a news conference to highlight $880,000 in improvements to Stodgell Park in Windsor. Feb. 14, 2023 (Photo courtesy of the City of Windsor)
James Chacko, Executive Director of Parks and Facilities for the City of Windsor, says they also installed a toboggan hill in the park, the third one they've built in the city.
"It's a good way of utilizing the soil that comes out of different construction projects. It' well used, I came by a couple times myself during January when we had that little snow storm, we had people using it after school hours and on the weekend. It's a nice little feature for our very pancake flat City of Windsor," he says.
Chacko says they try to get a lot of amenities in a park to get people in.
"Once you get people here, you're going to look at the possibility of expanded community programming. Once you get people into a park, you start to see things like yoga in the park type of things, people are getting together and meeting, bringing people together in very friendly, very social informal type of events," he adds.
The improvements to Stodgell Park are part of a $26-million plan to enhance and improve parks across Windsor.