From left to right, Henderson City Manager Mary Kay Peck, Assistant City Manager Bristol Ellington, Councilman Steven D. Kirk, resident Robin Laurent, Henderson Parks and Recreation Board Chair Cathy Rosenfield, Assistant City Manager Mark Calhoun, Parks and Recreation Department Director Mary Ellen Donner and Blas Gomez, a community member, break ground Thursday at the future site of Amador Vista Park.
Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009 | 6:24 p.m.
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Amador Vista Park’s opening in early July 2009 can’t come soon enough for the residents of Royalwood, a nearby housing development.
For about five years the intimate community of 20 families has asked for a neighborhood park. Soon their children will have a place to play, without crossing busy Horizon Ridge Parkway, residents said.
At the forefront of the effort was Robin Laurent, who spurred the land swap between developer Rich MacDonald, the land owner, and the city of Henderson.
Laurent and her husband, Nicolas, wanted a place for their three children to play. By summer, Pierce, 5, Parker, 4, and Paris, 2, will be cooling themselves in a water play fountain at the new $2.1 million five-acre park between Horizon Ridge Parkway and Amador Lane.
“It’s almost Mayberry now,” said Laurent, as she looked over the dirt lot. On Thursday, city officials and residents stood on the vacant lot bordered by sagebrush and a storm-drain ditch celebrating the promise of a fully equipped, green park.
The process of getting the park seemed to drag on forever, Laurent said, even after the land was secured. Laurent, a Royalwood home owners’ association board member, said she called City Councilman Steve Kirk every week for two months to make sure the project wasn’t forgotten.
“This continues our goal to get a park within a half-mile of every Henderson home,” Kirk said at the morning ground-breaking ceremony.
Laurent said she is also advocating for playground equipment that is safe for her son, who is autistic, and other developmentally disabled children in the area.
Gothic Landscaping will construct tether ball courts, a dog park, shaded playgrounds, a water play area with special soft padding, a walkway and picnic shelters. A bicycle obstacle course for young children is also being considered.
Amador Vista Park was funded by the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management monies, which provides funding for parks through the sale of Bureau of Land Management properties in the Las Vegas Valley.
Becky Bosshart can be reached at 990-7748 or [email protected].
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