The borough will be undertaking improvement projects at two local parks, and officials are currently looking into the possibility of purchasing additional equipment for the John Stetz Sr. Memorial Park on the municipality’s east side, according to Borough Manager David Jarrett.
    Jarrett explained that the borough is looking to replace the fencing around the Joseph DeSisti Memorial Park in Milltown as well as the fencing along the west end of the Fourth Ward Park.
    The possible new equipment at the east side park stemmed from a request raised by Melinda Kelly, chairwoman of the East Side Neighborhood Watch group, at last month’s council meeting.
    Kelly also brought up a concern about a “major sinkhole” that was developing in the pavement within the park’s basketball court.
Crews from the borough’s public works department inspected the area and discovered that the sinkhole had developed as a result of the improper removal of a tree stump, said Jarrett.
    Public works crews removed the stump, backfilled the hole and repaved the area that had subsided, he said.
    Currently, borough officials are working with representatives from the Suburban Equipment Company regarding the possible purchase of additional equipment for that park, said Jarrett.
    However, any potential purchases will depend on whether there is still money left over in the borough’s parks budget after the improvements at the parks in Milltown and in the fourth ward — which were budgeted for this year — have been completed, he explained.
    Jarrett noted that during the council’s budget workshops, one of the areas that was cut was the funding for the parks.
    “These improvements that we are going to be making are with what monies were available in the general fund budget as well as coupled with capital reserve funds,” he said.
    But along the planned improvements by the borough in Milltown and the Fourth Ward, a number of community groups are also loaning out their services in helping with the upkeep of these local parks, said Jarrett.
    “We’ve been very fortunate this year with civic groups and individuals who have stepped up to work on our parks with us,” he said.
    On the east side, the park has been tended to by the neighborhood watch, while the borough — and Mayor Denny Thomas — helped pay for the paint that a group of local individuals used to repaint that complex’s basketball court, said Jarrett.
    In the Fourth Ward Park, Sayre High School student Devon Shaw — and a fellow classmate — conducted repairs to that park’s pavilion as his senior project while members of the Valley Kiwanis Club continues its long-standing tradition of helping with landscape activities in that park, Jarrett explained.
    “We have a resident of Miller Street — Mr. Anthony — who takes the time to go over there and pick up the trash,” he said. “He has offered some good suggestions to us on ... the relocation of existing signage, so that people can see the rules of the park.”
    Members of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church recently held a workbee at the Joseph DeSisti Memorial Park in Milltown, helping with the upkeep of that facility, he said.
    Meanwhile, members of St. John Lutheran Church has been planting flowers along the Stevenson Street side of the Island Pond property and in the downtown traffic triangle at the intersection of Desmond Street and Lehigh Avenue, while the Valley Gardener’s Club has been conducting plantings at the pedestrian walkway on Desmond Street and in Triangle Park on Keystone Avenue, said Jarrett.
    “It demonstrates the level of community involvement that we have been able to fortify these partnerships and enter into new partnerships with groups,” he said.
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Warren Howeler can be reached at whoweler@morning-times.com