Local company 2Down Services LLC spent Monday, July 3, and Tuesday, July 4, donating its time and services to a large seal coat and striping job at the parking lot at Battle Ground’s Kiwanis Park.
At the same time, signs of improvements by Battle Ground’s Public Works Park Division staff could be seen in the form of new benches, picnic tables and a park sign.
“We try to do at least one thing a year donation wise,” 2Down Services LLC owner Will Hammers said. “But here I grew up in Battle Ground my whole life and, I mean, I played football out in this park, basketball. Like I said, I grew up here. So I saw the post on Facebook about their park cleanup days. We weren’t able to make it, but after that, I told my wife that this is a perfect opportunity. It needs it.”
Hammers added the job was a little beyond the business’s regular capabilities but he said prior to the job being finished on Monday, July 3, the parking lot will look much better than before. Prior to the seal coat and striping job, the aged parking lot’s stripes were not visible. After the job was finished, bright white parking stripes and a black finish on the parking lot provided the appearance of new life to the park.
“Obviously, it means a lot in terms of the cost savings and not having to put the work into this. But I think in this circumstance, as you probably heard from Will, he’s a local. So to be able to have our community really band together and to make something great for the rest of our community has that sentimental meaning,” Alisha Smith, Battle Ground communications manager, said.
Along with the donated project of resurrecting the appearance of Kiwanis Park’s parking lot, a part of park maintenance budget included replacing the benches and picnic tables.
As for other projects to Kiwanis Park, City Manager Erin Erdman presented a plan to turn the current basketball courts of Kiwanis Park into six pickleball courts and build a full, enclosed basketball court where the horseshoe pits are currently. The basketball court project would not require tree removal, Smith said.
“We do have two projects that were budgeted as park impact capital improvement projects this year and that was the redo of the picnic shelter over at Kiwanis Park, and then there’s one over at McConnell Park,” Smith said. “It has not gone out to bid yet, so we don’t know what that project is actually coming in at but during the June 15 discussions, they were talking about what the council priorities were in terms of reserve funding projects and what their intentions were going forward and the staff came back with some recommendations on additional improvements over Kiwanis Park, which included renovating the current basketball courts and looking at potentially turning those into six pickleball courts.”
