BEAUMONT, Texas — A beloved Beaumont park is finally getting a new life after over a year.
Crews were out at Charlton-Pollard Park Tuesday installing new playground equipment after the old playground was removed due to rusty equipment and exposed wood.
This new equipment comes from a $1.4 million upgrade to city-wide parks approved by Beaumont City Council. These funds were split between Charlton-Pollard, Combest, Central and Babe Zaharias Parks.
People living in the Charlton-Pollard neighborhood were frustrated after the city's timeline was pushed back twice.
But now that the playground equipment is finally being installed, residents like John LeBlanc say, it's a launching pad for the regrowth of their neighborhood.
"I love it. It's our colors. Charlton-Pollard colors," LeBlanc said.
Families consider this park the heartbeat of their neighborhood.
"When we lose them, the community dies and we're not letting Charlton-Pollard go dead," he said.
LeBlanc has lived in the neighborhood for 55 years.
The original playground was fenced off by city officials in September 2022, then removed.
"I'm glad they did take the old one out because it was a danger to kids as well as other people," he said.
LeBlanc is also a member of the Charlton-Pollard Neighborhood association. His frustration stems from how long it took for this new playground to be delivered.
"People call us first, they don't run down to city council," he said.
In June, Beaumont City Manager Kenneth Williams told 12News, the equipment would be delivered in October.
In October, that deadline was pushed back again to November. Since then, Kenneth says the city has been working to meet their renewed deadline.
"We did have our people, Kenneth Ragette, our parks supervisor, contacted the playground equipment company and let them know that it was really important to our community," he said.
This is just the beginning of new things to come for the park.
"There's a piece of land adjacent there that we're looking at," Williams said.
"A xylophone and some musical flowers the children came up with that," LeBlanc said.
Before that can happen, the new playground needs to be completely installed.
"I can't wait to see it completed. Yesterday there were five kids running across, they can't wait," LeBlanc said.
Williams says weather will determine how long it takes crews to finish installing the playground, but he's hoping it will be ready to open by early 2024.
The city plans to host a rededication ceremony.
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