ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Weaver Park recently underwent an $800,000 renovation. However, despite the improvements promised by the project, residents say the park is worse now than before the renovation.
On the project page for Weaver Park, several improvements to the recreation space were detailed, including:
- Upgraded tennis and pickleball courts, featuring new seating, fencing and lighting
- Resurfaced basketball court, including new goals
- Ballfield improvements, such as new lighting, dugouts, fencing, batting cage, bullpen and visitor seating and better drainage
- Increased accessibility, with a new pedestrian bridge, rerouted greenway, new walking path and repaved parking lots
- New amenities and landscaping, including a new playground, picnic tables and other landscaping improvements
However, residents said that list of upgrades was not represented in the current state of the park.
“I think the complaints now are a lack of seating, a lack of working bathrooms and a baseball field that still floods, and also is no longer built from Little League regulations,” explained Sally Grau, a concerned community member and North Asheville Little League mom. “I think that there are more issues now than there were before the renovation.”
A long history of little league
Little league is a big deal for the Weaver Park community. NALL has called the baseball field home base for more than 50 years and hundreds of players take part in the volunteer-run league every year.
“North Asheville Little League is an all-volunteer league. It’s a no barrier league, so any family can participate, regardless of their ability to pay. The board will provide kids with gear if they can’t afford it. A glove, a bat, shoes, whatever they need,” Grau said. “The idea is to get kids out enjoying a game, building confidence, learning teamwork. We had, what, a record 450 kids register this year? A lot of the other little leagues have closed and travel ball is very expensive. So, here we have North Asheville Little League.”
Despite the league’s history with the neighborhood, NALL leaders said several requests to submit input to the city during the renovation process were denied.
“We were not invited to be a part of it. NALL was not invited to be a part of the conversation. Norwood Park Neighborhood Association, Jackson Park Neighborhood, nobody was invited to the table to collaborate about the design,” said NALL Board of Directors member Lindsay Hensley. “Nobody was presented the design that I’m aware of.”
City officials, meanwhile, said that the NALL had been involved throughout the renovation.
“The North Asheville Little League (NALL) has been involved with the project team and field maintenance staff throughout the project. The needs of the team have informed the design and construction of the park,” Asheville officials said in an emailed statement. “NALL has expressed concerns about various elements of the ballfield and their functionality for little league play. The City is committed to working with NALL to understand these concerns and to identify ways to cooperatively resolve them.”
Ballpark problems
In a walk-through of Weaver Park on Saturday, July 25, several North Asheville neighbors and NALL members, including Grau, pointed out several issues with the baseball field they say had been exacerbated or miscalculated by Asheville Parks & Recreation during the renovation.
For one, the new dugouts.
“I think big concerns are dugout location. You can see they’re in the outfield. Most dugouts begin with the far end being in line with third base and first base,” said Hensley. “So, you have seven and eight-year-old kids trying to go from that door at the far end of the dugout, way in the outfield, to home plate. It’s a management concern for volunteers, and also, they’re just not engaged in the game.”
Jasper, a 10-year-old NALL player, confirmed that he had a harder time listening to his coaches in the new dugouts than the old ones.
“It was, like, a lot more easier, because you could hear your coaches a lot more clearly,” Jasper said. “Because the dugouts were right there instead of all the way out here.”
In the renovated outfield, meanwhile, there were other problems.
“I almost twisted my ankle,” he said. “It was in right field, because there’s a lot of holes there with sand cover. A lot of the holes don’t have sand in them, though.”
Our walk-through of the outfield revealed several sandy holes and large pools of water, which also frustrated the North Asheville neighbors. Hensley remarked that the field was not graded properly.
“The field was never actually graded or anything. Parks & Rec, the guys who do all the field work, were scrambling to get it ready at the end because of the timeline that they pushed them to, just so that we could get a month of games on the field,” Hensley said. “The outfield still has divots in it, and you can see, the drainage is actually worse than it used to be.”
Water covered the field and the sidewalks around the field. While she acknowledged there had been record-setting rainfall the week prior, Hensley said the Saturday puddling reflected ongoing issues with field flooding at Weaver Park.
“The city usually gets the field ready. But a lot of times, we’re out there as volunteers with puddle pillows, soaking up mud and raking to try to get the fields playable,” Hensley said.
Around the baseball diamond, water had washed away the sand, revealing craggy grey cement underneath. Studded in the mud were pieces of broken glass and bits of rock. Underneath the nearby bleachers, sand covered the sidewalk. In the new batting cage, debris clumped underneath the net. Near the creek, rebar and sandbags from the renovation project were left untouched.
The NALL has brought their list of concerns to Asheville city leadership, including Mayor Esther Manheimer, City Manager DK Wesley and Assistant City Manager Jade Dundas, who they said were receptive to working to resolve the issues.
“The big season is spring, and the hope is to get the dugouts repositioned, the bullpen corrected and the drainage issues and outfield fixed before, you know, February,” Grau said.
Additional problems
Outside of the baseball field, North Asheville residents were also dissatisfied with the new playground, which parents said was more dangerous than the old one and kids said was less fun to play on.
“I’ve been coming down for four years with granddaughters, and there is so much less for a little granddaughter or grandson to play on now that’s age-appropriate,” said neighborhood resident Gene Menton.
The older playground, which had an accessibility ramp, several slides and ladders of multiple sizes, was replaced with a modern, neon-green playground model, featuring a rope bridge, angular ladders and a new, taller slide. A sticker on the play set said it was intended for kids ages 5-12.
“I feel like the old place structure was good because any kid, any age could go on it, and it’s easy for adults, too, because they could just go through with their kid if they’re small and go down a slide or something,” said Jasper.
The new one, meanwhile, was scary to small kids, said 9-year-old Jane.
“A lot of little kids haven’t been able to get in it. The other day, there was this little girl that appeared to be having trouble getting off of the rope ladder, ’cause she got to the middle, and she was so scared,” Jane said. “Her mom came over and her mom helped her get down. I think she was crying.”
The limited accessibility of the renovated park was also a hot-button issue for residents. The bathrooms were closed, with two porta-potties sitting outside, and there were picnic tables, but few park benches.
“There should have been engineers on this project who were double-checking everything,” said Jasper’s mom, Meghan Chaudhry. “Even accessibility experts for the entirety of the park, not just the playground. As you can see, if you look here, there are zero park benches. People who have functional and access needs cannot sit [by the playground].”
Menton said that the lack of accessible benches was a deterrent to visiting the park.
“They did put that one over there, which is in the sun. I used to go find places in the shade to sit, and if I sit down, the old sandbox had wood instead of cement, and it was about twice as high, so I could sit down and still stand up,” Menton said. “Now, it’s embarrassing that I have to get on my hands and knees in order to get up. I can’t just stand up anymore. Age happens, you know, you can’t help that. But it’s gotten harder to bring them down.”
Grau said that neighborhood representatives brought a presentation to the Asheville City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 28, and that the council members seemed receptive.
In the statement from the city, officials said “staff met with community members who shared their feedback regarding the renovations at Weaver Park and the baseball fields. The purpose of this meeting was to gather information about their concerns related to the park and field. With this information staff will work to understand the identified concerns and to develop an action plan for addressing those items that need attention.”
“City staff genuinely values feedback from residents,” the city said. “We rely on local insight to ensure local investments truly reflect and serve the community.”
Find more information about Weaver Park at www.publicinput.com/weaverpark.