Fundraising halfway for $200K upgrades at Medina park, including splash pad

Photos by Ginny Kropf: These four Medina residents are on a mission to raise $200,000 for improvements to Pine Street Park, an area they all played in as youth and are committed to seeing restored for future generations. From left are Tom Hungerford, Bob Sanderson, Maureen Sanderson and Nicole Goyette.

By Ginny Kropf, correspondent Posted 1 May 2019 at 8:16 am

MEDINA – Pine Street Park has been an important part of the community for a long time, said nearby resident Tom Hungerford.

Hungerford has joined with Nicole Goyette, who also lives nearby, and Bob and Maureen Sanderson to raise $200,000 to make improvements to the decades-old park.

The idea to renovate the park was Maureen’s, who recalls the pool at Street Park in the 1940s and 1950s. Last summer she and her husband Bob, Hungerford and Goyette formed the Pine Street Park Project Committee and began to formulate plans for raising the money to bring the park back to life.

The park was formerly the site of tennis courts, which were removed 14 years ago when they needed costly repaving. New tennis courts were installed at the new high school on Maple Ridge Road in the early 1990s.

The committee contacted Ben Frasier, a Lyndonville native, whose Buffalo company Parkitects designs parks.

His design for Pine Street includes a splash pad, a butterfly garden and new playground equipment. There will also be a merry-go-round (spinner) similar to the one which delighted children in State Street Park.

Two youth play lacrosse in Pine Street Park. Sawyer Kingsbury, 12, left, and his brother Sam, 14, live in the area and often come here. They think it’s great the park is going to be restored with new playground equipment, a butterfly garden and splash pad.

The splash pad will be 30 feet in diameter and water will circulate out to water plants and trees. The splash pad is the first of its kind for Parkitects, Maureen said.

“There will still be the ball field and lots of green space,” Hungerford said.

“This is a very used park,” Goyette said.

Maureen said the park is in a very visible area.

“All the families who come to town for Thomas the Train come down Park Avenue, and the park is the first thing they see,” she said.

“We had visited the park and saw how dilapidated it had become,” Maureen said. “We have grandchildren now and want them to have a nice, safe place to play.”

In March, the committee launched a corporate fund drive, and raised more than half of the $200,000 needed.

“Businesses were very generous. Those who couldn’t give money offered materials or gifts in kind,” Goyette said. “Takeform made beautiful booklets with pictures describing our goal to send out with our requests. Now we are giving community members an opportunity to donate to our cause.”