B‑Ball Courts Get TLC

Outdoor basketball courts in the city — 21 one of them to be exact — are sporting new surfaces and paint thanks to an initiative to make them a safe place to play.

On Thursday, Mayor Toni Harp and the city staffers who helped make the transformation happen met at Winslow-Augustine Park in the West Rock neighborhood to reveal the fruits of their labor.

The summer-long project grew out of a facilities inventory conducted by city Parks Deputy Director Bill Dixon and parks landscape architect Dave Moser. The men discovered about 500 linear feet of cracks on those 21 courts. Of those identified courts, Winslow-Augustine was in the worst shape and got the biggest overhaul, according to city Parks Director Becky Bombero.

“The mayor prioritizes healthy active lifestyles, and our courts get a lot of play,” Bombero said. ​“While it’s not organized play, it’s intensive use. So basketball court renovations was a good way to fit in with the mayor’s priorities. This project has served every neighborhood throughout the city and provides a safe place for people to go to play.”

She said that the courts at Winslow-Augustine were too far gone to be patched. The court was completely dug up and new asphalt laid.

All of the city’s courts didn’t get an overhaul, because some of them like the ones at East Rock Park have already been done, or just weren’t in as bad shape. The whole project to upgrade the 21 courts cost about $250,000.

Winslow-Augustine Park also got a new pedestrian bridge that connects it to the nearby Brennan-Rogers School. City Engineer Giovanni Zinn said the new pedestrian bridge replaces one that likely was built when the nearby school was built. The bridge is a manufactured box truss that was put into place with a crane. A second bridge that will directly connect the Brookside housing development to the park is also in the works, which would allow neighbors to shave some time when walking to the park or anywhere else on Wilmot Road, which now takes more than 15 minutes.