Pocatello opens new playground at Alameda Park amid ongoing vandalism issues
POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI)- Pocatello's Alameda Park officially opened a new playground for children ages 5 to 12 Friday, marking significant progress in the city's ongoing park improvement efforts. Additional upgrades, including a new surface for the swings, a replacement tot lot for younger children and new amenities, are underway at the park.
The new playground and planned improvements are part of the city's "retire playground program," which aims to replace playgrounds in poor condition throughout Pocatello. Anne Butler, director of the Pocatello Parks and Recreation Department, said the initiative is part of an effort to address deferred maintenance and enhance park facilities.
The swingset area at Alameda Park was fenced off on July 17 for a scheduled upgrade. Crews are replacing the existing gravel surfacing with synthetic bark to provide a softer landing area. Butler noted that this process is expected to take about a week.
After the swings reopen, the city plans to close the existing 2–5-year-old tot lot to replace it with a new playground designed for the park's youngest visitors.
“We have a retire playground program with the city and we've been doing our best to identify playgrounds that are in the poorest condition and start replacing those,” Butler said. She added, “we're just really hoping to try to get caught up on a little bit of deferred maintenance and, make our parks as nice as we can.”
The park improvements are funded through a combination of city resources and community partnerships. “We've been rolling it out for about a year,” Butler explained. “The city's replaced. We've had some funding to replace some playgrounds, but we've also been working with different community members or businesses to try to sponsor some of those playgrounds as well.”
Alameda Park has unfortunately been a target for significant vandalism, particularly affecting its restrooms. The park's restrooms have been closed, with a portable restroom made available for visitors due to repeated incidents.
“We have a lot of vandalism there,” Butler stated. She expressed frustration, saying, “truthfully, our staff just can't keep up with the vandalism that we've had.” She noted that the department had to make the decision to close them to focus on other operations.
Butler indicated that vandalism has seen “a pretty big uptick over the past year or two.” She is calling on the community for assistance. “We're really hoping that the neighbors or the neighborhood would help us and kind of pay attention to those things. And, you know, if they see something awry that they call the police immediately.”
She also reminded the public that “the parks are open from sunup till an hour after sundown.” She urged residents, “if it's beyond that time period, please help us out. Or if you see something in the park during the day that looks wrong. Just make that phone call. I think that would help us a ton.”
Further improvements at Alameda Park are being realized through collaborations with the Alameda Neighborhood Association, NeighborWorks Pocatello and the Marley Family. These partnerships are facilitating the addition of new amenities.
“We've been working with the Alameda Neighborhood Association and Neighborworks and, family here in town. They want to remember a family member and so we're going to be putting up a bunch of benches around the park, along the walking path by the basketball court,” Butler said. The Alameda Neighborhood Association has also purchased a new drinking fountain to be installed near the restroom, adding to recent tree trimming and planting efforts.
The swingset area is expected to reopen in about a week once the synthetic bark surfacing is complete. The Pocatello Parks and Recreation Department hopes to have the permanent restrooms at Alameda Park reopened as soon as possible.
The city anticipates installing two more playgrounds within the next year and plans to seek additional donations from businesses to continue the playground replacement program.
