The Heart of the Westside has had a pretty busy summer! We topped off our activities by hosting the National Night Out at the newly updated Nichols Park. Nichols Park has undergone a makeover to the play area and installed a walking track. Watch our Facebook site for upcoming updates as we are awaiting a soccer field to be put in as well. We had a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new playground and a memorial for Tammy Haynes where a tree was planted in Tammy’s honor for her years of service as HOW president.
The celebration included comments from Councilwoman Phyllis Ferguson and a ribbon-cutting for Springfield’s biggest and newest playground, featuring five slides, multiple climbing structures, two towers, sound effects, a telescope and rotating ShadowPlay features. Nearby there are four kinds of swings, a seated Merry-Go-All and plenty of shaded benches. The playground incorporates universal design, which is accessible to kids of all abilities, including complete ramp access, ADA accessible swings, three slides with ADA transfer platforms and a rubberized tile surface throughout.
The Nichols Park playground was funded through a federal Community Development Block Grant, coming to the City of Springfield through the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program. The same grant funded new playground equipment at Cooper, Tom Watkins and Meador parks. The grant also funded new walking trails at Nichols, Tom Watkins and Meador, as well as a new section of Jordan Creek Greenway, along Bennett Street, between Cruse Dog Park and Ewing Park.
We were also able to debut our new neighborhood T-shirts at the night out. They are very cool and remind everyone that the “beat goes on” in the Heart of the Westside, meaning that the Heart of the Westside had heart and has heart. We are not done.
We had a very successful Back-to-School Bash hosted by Passion Church in partnership with the neighborhood association, other churches, Elevate Lives and other community partners! The night included free food, info on school supplies from Ready. Set. Supply. and fun activities for the kids! Crosslines gave out several bags of groceries to help over 700 people and there were community resources and hygiene items passed out! Everyone seemed to have a great time.
Our upcoming events include our September cleanup day, a neighborhood picnic in October along with a Halloween event partnering with others in our community. We are also hoping to have a 3-on-3 basketball tournament in November. Keep an eye out for event dates.
Our meetings take place on the second Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. and include updates from our Police and various community/City guest speakers. These meetings take place at Passion Assembly Church, 806 N. Forest Ave.
Jenny Fillmer Edwards provided additional information for this story.