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Oldsmar gets park grant

The city secures $200,000 in state funding for renovations at Sheffield Park and will kick in another $300,000.

By TAMARA EL-KHOURY
Published August 9, 2005

OLDSMAR - The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has given the city $200,000 to improve Sheffield Park.

The city will match the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program grant and raise it an additional $100,000.

The $500,000 in renovations for the 12-acre park on Cutty Bay Court is slotted for next year's budget.

Improvements include adding picnic shelters, renovating the tennis courts, adding a fenced-in pet area, lighting the baseball and softball field, renovating the trail and adding exercise equipment.

Perhaps the most exciting addition to Sheffield Park will be restrooms.

"There's always been an issue of no restrooms," said Lynn Rives, director of parks and recreation and cultural affairs. "You're kind of limited in what you can do in that park." Rives said he expects the improvements to be completed by the end of next year. He said the city will hold public meetings to get feedback from the community before anything is constructed.

"Now it's time for Sheffield Park to kind of glow," Mayor Jerry Beverland said.

Beverland said he hopes to eventually add a soccer field or another baseball field to the park.

With 500 acres of park land and 1,800 acres of the county's Brooker Creek Preserve within the city limits, a park in Oldsmar is usually undergoing improvements.

"We love parks in the city of Oldsmar," Beverland said. "We love green space."

Renovations to the western part of R.E. Olds Park along Shore Drive include new playground equipment and sidewalks.

Rives is already planning the next round of park improvements to start once Sheffield Park's facelift is complete. He said the city already has $250,000 in grants to work on the Mobbly Bayou Wilderness Preserve.

Plans are to build the southern entrance to the beach and add picnic tables and a parking area.

"We started the design on it already," Rives said. "That will be the next project after Sheffield."

[Last modified August 9, 2005, 01:23:15]