PITTSFIELD, Mass. — It was almost a year ago exactly when Eddie Taylor went before the Parks Commission and said the renaming of Pitt Park was "reigniting a fuse."

 

Rosemary and the Rev. Willard Durant had inspired community and were a positive inspiration to many on the West Side and a packed room last October of supporters rallied behind changing Pitt Park's name to honor the former AME Price Memorial Church pastor.

 

The name change for those in support was not just a name, it was the start of a movement. 

 

"This is bigger than the park name. This is sincerely the beginning of reigniting this fuse," Taylor said at the time.

 

Now a year later, the energy behind the name change is leading to a community build project in which the neighbors of the Columbus Avenue Park are volunteering their time to replace the playground, just the second of three major capital improvements planned for the park.

 

"The old playground was a pressure treated playground, it wasn't up to code. It was time to replace it. We've got a lot of volunteers down here today helping to build this playground over the course of today and tomorrow," the city's Parks and Open Space Manager Jim McGrath said. "This is a great effort in a great little park in a great neighborhood."

 

On Friday, a number of volunteers had begun the project and all day on Saturday dozens more are expected to join in. The volunteers will be working with professional playground buildings from Miracle Recreation and the designers Site Specifics to build the new playground. 

 

"This effort is important because really what we try to do at the end of the day is foster stewardship within our parks and there is no better way to do that in a neighborhood than to get folks who live in the neighborhood and other volunteers who care about their parks to come out and help," McGrath said.

 

Last year, the city rehabilitated the basketball court. This fall the playground, funded by a $70,000 allocation from the city's federal Community Development Block Grant funds, is being replaced. And next spring, the city is looking to install a new shelter, which Greylock Federal Credit Union has already donated $25,000 toward. 

 

"Durant Park is a well-loved park in this neighborhood and as we begin to think through the improvements at the park we heard from many different neighbors and stakeholders that they wanted to see some real capital improvement in the park," McGrath said

 

The name change and the neighborhood getting together were the main inspiration for the new capital improvements. Those advocating for the name change were the same who helped craft the master plan for the park.

 

"There was a lot of energy after the name change and the city is happy to work with the neighbors to seize on that momentum and get some great things done," McGrath said." With a refocused energy on the park, we've been able to identify capital improvements that the neighbors want to see."

The momentum behind Durant is one of multiple community efforts to rehab city parks.

The Parks Commission approved the renaming of the field at Clapp Park in honor of the former Pittsfield High School coach Buddy Pellerin and the citizen group behind that is raising some $250,000 for improvements there in conjunction with the master plan for that.

At Springside Park, another group of citizens have crafted master plans and applied and received $50,000 from the state to fix up the Springside House and are raising funds for other improvements there. 

Just this week, a group of citizens reported they are raising $8,000 toward improvements at the newly named Christopher R. Porter Memorial Park on Highland Avenue.

 

"This city loves its parks and it is nice to see so many people advocating for their parks and coming out and helping. It is promising to me, the future of our parks system. We can't do it along. We don't have enough people, we don't have enough funds," McGrath said. 

 

Before heading back to work at Durant Park on Friday, McGrath said a community build such as the one for the playground these two days isn't just a benefit to the Parks Department but one that "benefits everybody." And that's exactly what the Durants would want.