How would you like to have a membership to an activity and recreation area that is open seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year? Well, it’s all yours just for the asking. Just visit any of our city parks. You can sled ride in the winter, picnic or ride your bike in the summer. Or just go watch a ball game some soft summer evening. What more could you ask out of life?

The entire City of Alliance covers 7.952 square miles, or approximately 5,090 acres. Our park system covers over two hundred acres of the 5,090 total acres. If you calculate that there are 43,560 square feet in an acre, that means our park system has over eight million square feet of grass to be mowed. There are seventeen shelters, seven buildings, seven restrooms, twenty-one fountains, twelve play areas, six basketball courts, eight tennis courts, four volleyball courts, eighteen ball fields, and five soccer fields. There are an additional five play areas in the six mini parks in the city.

Other areas that are maintained by the Parks Department include Freedom Plaza, the Arch and Main Park, the Viaduct area, the Hester Triangle, Diehl Court, the Milton Street Islands, and the Center Street and Tanglewood Islands.

No, the parks aren’t perfect. We sure wish they could be. But there is someone working every day of the week to keep them maintained. There are five full-time maintenance staff, five to seven part-time seasonal staff, one Park Director, one secretary and one office manager. The Parks Department operating budget for the year 2001 is $422,375.

The Parks Department also maintains the Alliance City Cemetery, which covers approximately fifty acres. There is one full-time staff and four or five seasonal employees at the cemetery. The cemetery has about one hundred and twenty burials a year. The 2001 operating budget for the Cemetery is $125,543.

Besides the mowing and trimming in the summer, the Parks Department plows all the park roads in the winter. They are also responsible for seven city-owned parking lots in the downtown area and the adjacent sidewalks, winter and summer. Park employees also build or repair most of the picnic tables, benches and trash receptacles you see in the parks.

Every year a few major projects are undertaken in the Parks. This year’s plans include renovation of the basketball courts at Maple Beach Park, installation of safety base material for the play equipment at Earley’s Hill Park, and new fencing and a tot lot swing and slide at the Mahoning mini park. With the use of recycled materials, new play equipment and benches will be installed at Thompson-Snodgrass Park and the Western-Electric mini park.

If you have any questions regarding the Parks or the Cemetery, call Kim Cox the director at 330-821-2260. We encourage you to enjoy the park system in the City of Alliance. According to a recent traffic count at Silver Park, an average of six hundred and fifty-two cars pass over the traffic bridge near Kidwell Lake every day. Take advantage of our park system and let yours be one of them!