The City of Pensacola Parks & Recreation Department has completed substantial work on its Direction ’25 parks revitalization initiative, with 11 projects now finished across the $21.7 million program launched by Mayor D.C. Reeves earlier this year.
According to the city’s announcement, the completed projects span accessibility improvements, playground renovations, and athletic facility upgrades at parks throughout Pensacola. The initiative prioritizes compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act while addressing deferred maintenance at neighborhood parks and recreation facilities.
Completed Projects
Among the finished work, sidewalk accessibility improvements have been completed at seven locations: Belvedere Park, Eastgate Park, Lion’s Park, Granada Square, Zamora Square, La Mancha Square, and Toledo Square. The city says these upgrades provide ADA-compliant pathways to park amenities and improve wheelchair accessibility.
Several neighborhood parks received comprehensive renovations. Henry Wyer Park now features restored playground surfacing, new benches, picnic tables, trash cans, light poles, fencing, and a drinking fountain. Allen Park received similar treatment with playground surface restoration, repainted climbers, updated swings, upgraded picnic tables and trash cans, basketball court renovation, and a new drinking fountain.
Miralla Park and Pintado Park also completed playground and amenity upgrades, including accessibility improvements and new drinking fountains.
Athletic Facility Improvements
Roger Scott Athletic Complex underwent substantial renovations, including football field and press box upgrades, improved sidewalk accessibility in spectator areas, ADA bleacher upgrades, and restored pathways connecting to the playground.
Bill Gregory Athletic Facility received new ADA-accessible bleachers, while Magee Field got upgraded football goalposts and field renovations.
Gull Point Resource Center’s improvements included basketball court resurfacing, parking lot renovation, playground upgrades, and refreshed picnic tables and benches.
Local Contractor Focus
Parks and Recreation Director Tonya Byrd stated: “Direction ’25 has shown what can be achieved when our internal team leads with innovation, efficiency and pride in our city. Not only have we completed major improvements, but we’ve done so while saving money and supporting local small businesses.”
- The city says it has prioritized hiring local small contractors for specialized work requiring outside expertise, keeping project dollars within the Pensacola community.
Detailed project updates are available at the city’s Direction ’25 webpage.
The original Direction ’25 announcement came as part of Mayor Reeves’ broader infrastructure focus. The parks initiative represents one of the largest single investments in Pensacola’s neighborhood parks system in recent years.
This is great, but……
The city waste money by installing water fountains, because they are turned off most of the time. Why, no one will tell me. You can report to 311 that a fountain is off and maybe after a week they will tune it back on, but a month or so later they will be not working again.
I gave up reporting them.
I regularly bike, and walk, and visit almost every park in East hill, downtown and can testify that non-working water fountains has been an ongoing issue since 2003. Otherwise, the parks and the park service do a decent job.