Work will soon begin on improvements for a pair of Windsor parks.
Starting Monday, April 8, City of Windsor crews will begin work on the milling and resurfacing of the sports courts at Remington Booster Park, located at 2710 Lillian Avenue.
Once construction is complete, the park will host six pickleball courts, two tennis courts and one basketball court.
Executive Director of Parks and Facilities James Chacko says currently at Remington there are four lit tennis courts and one unlit basketball court.
He says ongoing condition assessment ratings identified all five to be in need of refurbishment, and when complete it'll look like other upgrades installed at parks over the last few years.
"So you're going to see a nice new surface and the additional changes," Chacko continued. "We're converting two of the tennis courts into those pickle ball courts to allow for greater use, and allow for more people to be out there utilizing the courts."
The parks that have seen this work undertaken include Forest Glade Park, Wilson Park, Goldenwood Park and Fontainebleau Park.
The construction at Remington is expected to take six weeks.
Then later this month, restoration work will get underway on the historic Boer War Memorial in Jackson Park, located at 125 Tecumseh Road East.
Clifford Restoration Limited is handling the work, which will start on April 22, and take about five months to complete.
Chacko says the war memorial is in need of some ongoing work to bring it back up to its original condition.
"That is the type of work that has to be done during particular weather, which is why it's going to take a little bit longer. It's also work that's done because this is a heritage feature so it needs to be done by the proper heritage restoration experts, and weather permitting and everything goes well, will be completed later summer."
Courts at Remington and the memorial structure will be closed during construction, but both parks will remain open.
Chacko says the public's patience is appreciated while the projects are underway, and they're just asking people who use the parks to be aware.
"There will be appropriate construction fencing around the war memorial at Jackson Park, the tennis courts themselves are fenced off, and there's additional fencing around the basketball court that isn't fenced at Remington. People can still enjoy the rest of the park, everything else will be open, and we just always ask people to be mindful of any of the construction equipment as they're moving throughout the park," he said.
Chacko says they're very excited to see both of these projects completed, and look forward to the many other parks projects that will take place in 2024.