The ribbon was cut to officially open the new 30 by 60 foot pavilion in Laura Leake Park in Centralia Wednesday afternoon.
The $86-thousand project was half-funded by an OSLAD state grant. Centralia City Manager Galen Mahle is pleased to see the long awaited project to be completed.
“We are looking every day at ways that we can improve facilities, and the way of life in Centralia. This is one of the things that is going to shine bright in this park for a lot of years as well as the mural that’s still taking shape. They just have a couple days left and they will have that ready to go too, ready for Saturdays Juneteenth festivities. So just thank you all for being here for this ribbon cutting for a project. That’s been talked about for now how many years? Finally getting finished.”
Mahle says the city isn’t done with improvements to Laura Leake Park, with another OSLAD grant to be submitted this fall.
“Application will include the replacement of the other pavilion. It’s going to look at some improvements to the basketball court area repainted, potentially repaving of that area, and some additional playground equipment. Then were looking at that southeast corner that used to be a ball field still has the backstop and trying to figure out what would be a good purpose for that corner because right now its one of the more unused areas in the park and we want to figure out what we could use that area for that would entice people to come use that space.”
A member of the Centralia Park Committee Ricky Garrett says the new pavilion will make a difference.
“What it means is to get the community more involved, because as you can see there we have that little one but wasn’t really enough room to have big functions. Now we can have big functions here, we have the space for it, so I think it’s going to work out perfect.”
Garrett is also looking forward to further improvements.
As the ribbon cutting was taking place, Janie Allen was continuing her painting of the park building that will feature the five Harlem Globetrotters from Centralia. It is scheduled for dedication during Juneteenth at 12:40 Saturday afternoon.
