Maple Park might get a face-lift

Josh Kleinbaum

While her two daughters used a bicycle rack as a jungle gym Monday

afternoon, Kareena McClean looked around Maple Park, watching the

groups of men huddled around tables, playing cards, backgammon and

chess, and the money changing hands.

“I’ve seen fighting,” said McClean, who lives near Maple Park but

usually takes her kids to Palmer Park, even though it’s farther away.

“But I think that goes along with the gambling.”

That afternoon, the McClean children -- Chloe, 5, and Ashley, 3 --

were the only children in Maple Park, which has become a popular

hangout for older Armenian Americans. But if city officials can

secure two major grants worth $4.5 million, they will give Maple Park

a massive face-lift, one that could make the park more attractive to

children and families.

“Glendale is in a severely park-deficient area,” said Don

Zabinski, an administrative analyst for the city’s Parks, Recreation

and Community Services division. “Land is very expensive to acquire,

so we are trying to optimize the use of existing park sites and the

facilities on it.”

The Maple Park revitalization plan calls for a major overhaul of

the park’s community center, including an enhanced senior room, a

kitchen, a meeting room, a game room, a social hall, a computer lab

and an arts-and-crafts room, Zabinski said.

An artificial-turf field about half the size of a soccer field

will be installed, as well as an improved picnic area and more

parking.

With several stabbings at the park, at 820 E. Maple St., in the

past three years, measures will be enacted to address safety

concerns, including installing security cameras and lowering the

landscaping to increase visibility for patrolling police cars.

The price tag is $3 million, but the city hopes to get most of the

funding from a $2.5 million Murray-Hayden Urban Parks and Youth

Service grant. The city will fund the additional $500,000 from the

city’s park upgrade fund.

But Zabinski said the project is dependent on the grant.

“There’s no money budgeted for this at all,” Zabinski said. “But

we certainly seem to be well-qualified, based upon need.”

Zabinski said the city would apply for another $2 million grant to

build a gymnasium at the park. But city officials will not know if

they will receive the money until April, and it will not be available

until July.

In the meantime, families like the McCleans will either have to

make do with Maple Park or trek someplace else.

“We’re always amazed at how [Palmer Park] can be nice and clean,”

McClean said, “And then over here, you look around and think, eww.”