Improvements coming to Palumbo Park in Bella Vista

Palumbo Park, the community space next to Fleisher Art Memorial located at 723 Catharine St., is seeing some improvements.

Parks and Recreation and the Department of Public Property are working to put this capital improvements project for Palumbo into action, with an expected completion of early summer of 2016.

The park already includes a nice view of the mural on the side of Fleisher, in addition to benches and trees. This project is meant to make the park and even more useable community space.

Some improvements include things like removing trees with structural deficiencies and increasing the planting areas around the London Plane trees on the property to more effectively control the stormwater runoff onto Catharine Street. This is expected to bring low shrubs to the planting beds, which will have a raised stone planting edge surrounding it.

At the location of the new handicapped access ramp and enlarged entrance along Catharine Street, the pavers around existing trees will be removed. This new park design also hopes to bring different levels of social interaction through the design of the space. There is a larger, open space at the east-side for gatherings and quieter, more secluded locations with benches and picnic tables at the other end of the park.

For increased visibility, the 6′ 6″ fence surrounding the park will be replaced with a smaller, 36″ ornamental iron fence. The lighting improvement plan is to replace the 30′ light in the center of the park with a total of six 14′ pedestrian lights for better security.

The park is closed for these renovations until further notice. Expected completion is early summer of 2016.