- Havana received a $50,000 grant from Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program (FRDAP) to help with park improvements.
- The pavilion is expected to be completed early spring 2024.
- Watch the video to see what else they are going to add.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
I'm Ashley Engle your neighborhood reporter in Havana. Right now, I'm standing in front of a pavilion that is being built at Havana Community Park. I spoke with one woman who tells me, because of the improvements, she and her family are going to start coming to this park more often.
"We love to run and go to parks to be active."
This is Ashlee Zehr. She is a mother of 5 who lives in Havana.
"We've lived in Havana for 8 years."
She home schools her kids and since the weather is nice out, she uses this park and others as her classroom some days to keep her children active.
"It's just the freedom of being outside."
I told Ashlee about Havana getting money from the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program to make improvements to the park.
The town received a $50,000 grant to help with park beautification and improvements.
One of the things they are adding: a new picnic pavilion that will be shaded and have bathrooms that is currently under construction now.
"The bathroom aspect will be nice; we have the little ones."
Ashlee and others have told me that every time they came to Havana Community Park, they would have to use the restrooms at the library that is right next to it. The inconvenience of that is, the library doesn't open until 11 in the morning.
That forces visitors who come to the park early to wait until they go home to use the restroom.
"This is a beautification project."
Havana's Don Harrison is the Streets Supervisor who oversees all parks and roads in Havana. He says the goal of the beautification project is to improve the park for people to want to come and spend time at it even more.
"Trying to help the public with things to do at the park, there's going to be new playground accessories, stuff like that."
They're trying to make sure families in Havana, like Ashlee's, have a safe park to go, without having to go far to enjoy the outdoors.
"We can just bring our school to the park and just be active."
Other things that the town is going to add to the park is a new playground and shuffle boards. However, they are expecting to have the picnic pavilion completed by early spring. In Havana, Ashley Engle, ABC 27.
