Bend Park and Rec Board tours project sites

The Bend Park and Recreation Board and Budget Committee took a tour Wednesday of upcoming projects around the community, a yearly spring opportunity to look at the changes to come in the new fiscal year.

Starting at Larkspur Community Center, a bus filled with board members and staff traveled to several park and trail locations.

Juniper Park in northeast Bend was the first stop on the tour. The park will undergo many landscaping developments. Officials said the project will entail parking, playground and restroom changes.

The parking lot on the south side of the park will be expanded and a new playground will be built on more level ground, without wood chips. The current restroom will be updated so that it is more accessible to all guests.

Jason Powell, construction manager for the park district, said, “With the new connecting pathways between everything, with more accessible grades, it will allow people to travel east and west, north and south throughout the park much easier.”

Powell also said the budget numbers for these changes are fairly consistent to what was allocated five years ago to the committee.

The group also visited a planned Deschutes River Trail expansion on the north end of town.

The new trail will begin on the north end of the trail and will go through Riley Ranch Nature Preserve to a bridge that will connect to Tumalo State Park.

It will be a soft surface trail, instead of a paved trail. The new trail will be wide enough to allow access for bikes to pass walkers and hikers walking their dogs on a leash.

“The biggest benefit is that the residents of Bend have experienced a level of service for parks in this community for a long time,” park district Executive Director Don Horton said. “What we’re doing is trying to maintain that level of service. As new people move to town, we want to build that park system out that will accommodate the new growth in the community.”

All of these projects are ongoing, and each location is at a different stage in development. The new developments will continue throughout this fiscal year and the upcoming year.

For a look at current projects: https://www.bendparksandrec.org/about/current-projects/.