Park playground plans in the works
Concert Sundaes season ends Aug. 29
SOUDERTON >> As work continues on a multi-year series of additions and improvements to Souderton Community Park, the next focus is the playground plans.
“We’re looking to build a new modular playground in the park,” Borough Manager Mike Coll said while reporting to Souderton Borough Council at its Aug. 16 work session about the committee working on the park plans.
“It would actually even have a lot of climbing equipment on it, which is becoming very popular,” he said.
The playground plans include safety surfacing, he said.
An outdoor gymnasium with exercise equipment is also planned. Parents could use that while their children played on the playground, he said. No date was given at the meeting for when the playground and outdoor gymnasium would be installed.
Work on a new parking area in the park, which will have its entrance across from the pool entrance on Wile Avenue, will begin this fall, Coll said.
Improvements being made to the audio visual system in the park could lead to more concerts or other events being held there, council President Brian Goshow, who is also a member of the committee working on the park plans, said.
“There’s been some discussion about bringing events other than Concert Sundaes in because our bandshell is pretty well recognized as a very, very good venue,” he said.
Concert Sundaes free outdoor concerts are held summer Sunday nights in the Maurice W. Foulke Bandshell in the park.
This year’s final Concert Sundaes of the season will be 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 29 with Timothy Bentch & Friends performing. Bentch, a former Souderton Mennonite Church pastor, will be presenting an evening of vocal jazz, spirituals, pop and a bit of opera. He was a leading tenor at the Hungarian State Opera House for 10 years and has toured extensively in Europe. He currently tours countries in the developing world for Global Disciples.
Bentch will be joined for the concert by his daughter, Emma and pianist Graeme Burgan.
In case of rain, the concert will be moved indoors at Souderton Area High School.
The park plans include attempting to save as many of the mature trees as possible, Coll said, although some are susceptible to disease and will ultimately die, so some may have to be removed and replaced by younger ones.
“One of the points of that park that was highlighted in the very beginning is that an awful lot of people enjoy that shaded area as a picnic area and there’s not a lot of parks that have shaded area like that,” Goshow said.
Final decisions have not yet been made on all the additions being made to the park, but it appears there will not be room for all the things that are being considered, he said.
One of the things that was earlier suggested was to include a multi-purpose field at the park and he’s seen a lot of examples of how that could be used, based on what already happens, he said.
“I still watch people on a regular basis flying a kite out there. I still watch people come out and set up a couple cones and play soccer. I’ve seen some rugby matches. I’ve seen some field hockey stuff go on, volleyball nets get set up,” Goshow said.
Other additions being considered for the park include a skate park, using some of the equipment that was salvaged from the Indian Valley-North Penn Valley Boys & Girls Club when the skate park there was removed, and basketball courts.
Souderton currently does not have any public basketball courts, Goshow and Coll said. In the past, there were basketball courts at the pool.
“I grew up on the basketball courts by the pool. That’s where I learned to play basketball and a lot of Souderton basketball players learned to play basketball on those,” Goshow said. “I kind of feel like we’re missing a little bit not having some basketball courts.”
The popularity of skateboarding appears to be decreasing, Coll said.
A state grant will help pay for the planned playground and outdoor gymnasium at the park.
The Souderton-Telford Rotary Club is leading the efforts to raise money for the total park project. Other organizations involved in the planning include Concert Sundaes, Indian Valley Arts Foundation and Penn Valley Church.