NATIONAL CITY, Calif. — National City leaders brought the community together for an event, giving away free turkeys and details about the plan for improvements at El Toyon Park.
It's an event put together by city leaders to provide residents an update on what the future holds for El Toyon Park. Those in attendance listened to a presentation by Assistant Director of Engineering & Public Works, Martha Juarez.
“It's the same park but it's gonna have a new life,” Juarez said.
Improvements will be made from a grant by the state of about 5.6 million dollars.
“The actual cost of the project as far as construction contract, we’re hoping it will be around four and a half million dollars that fits within the grant scope and budget,” Juarez said.
It's a project with many new additions to the park. Residents can expect to see several improvements like pickleball courts and a renovated playground for all ages.
“We’ll be completely refurbishing our football field here that's going to get a brand new artificial turf, new lighting, new scoreboard, new access roads as well as … as far as the other activities in the park, we’re going to resurface our tennis courts,” Juarez said.
Recently, a policy at the park was lifted that limited special events at El Toyon Park to 75 people.
“Oh I'm definitely concerned that crime might return,” National City Resident Ruben Felizardo said.
Since then, it has raised concerns in the community about crime reoccurring like it did years ago.
“We’re talking 30-40 years ago, there were alot of undesirable people would hang out, there would be alot of drug fighting. I know for a fact there were a couple of shootings, a couple of stabbings here,” Felizardo said.
With events put together for residents, city leaders hope it will bring the community together.
“When you create an active environment, community will participate and community will take ownership,” National City Council member, Ditas Yamane said.
The city is preparing to put the project up for a bid. In December, the project will be advertised giving contractors in the area an opportunity to help bring this project to life. It’s expected that by summer of 2025 the project will be completed.