$4 mill. buys new look for Fox Point parks
A new vibe for India Point Park. City of Providence photo
The city has budgeted about $4 million to improve four Fox Point parks. Brassil Playground is done; India Point Park is underway and Gano and Cabral parks are on deck.
Delayed and complicated by the debris from a buried school, the rebuilt Brassil job ended up costing $485,000. It opened in late July.
India Point Park, now 50 years old, will get $1.6 million of improvements including an expanded and re-landscaped picnic grove. Parks Supt. Wendy Nilsson called the waterfront picnic area “everyone’s favorite spot.”
The new picnic area will get four new tables, more trees and 4 swings, big enough for adults. This phase of India Point improvements also includes playground improvement and shoreline work to protect the park by absorbing storm surges. Deputy Press Secretary Samara Pinto says the concerts and other seasonal events will continue in the park.
Public toilets are not in this plan. That issue is under study. “It’s an issue that needs to be solved at some point,” Nilsson said. There’s also no money in this phase to remove pilings or address the 100-year-old utility towers.
But David Riley, leader of the drive to remove the towers, says he’s hopeful the issued can be resolved. He said the mayors of Providence and East Providence now support burying the lines.
For about $1 million, Cabral Park, next to Vartan Gregorian School, is getting a full rebuild. The chain-link fences are coming down, the sprinklers from the water park are being moved to scattered sites and the ball field and the playground are being rebuilt.
At Gano Park, the plans call for rebuilding the basketball courts, moving the ballfields and landscaping the rest of the park— a direct benefit for two apartment projects under construction or under discussion for the western side of the park.
The Gano improvements are expected to cost $800,000. State and private land between the Seekonk River and the bike trail is not in the plan. Work at Gano and Cabral is expected to begin next spring and summer.
