Grand Opening of New Park Held on Saturday

• Sharon Aron Baron
• 9 years ago

By: Sharon Aron Baron

It’s been two years since the groundbreaking ceremony, and the day has finally come for the grand opening of the Mainlands Park.

Held on Saturday, January 10, at 10:30 a.m., the event will start with a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by a one-mile run/walk.

Mainlands Park is on a 23-acre lot, which was previously part of the 48-acre Monterey Golf Club located east of the Turnpike off Monterey Drive. Once owned by father and son developers Bruce and Shawn Chait, the land for the park was offered as an incentive to the City of Tamarac to get their land deal through.  In 2011, the City held two neighborhood meetings with residents in the Mainlands to discuss what type of amenities they would like the park to have.

Those amenities include:

• A concrete multi-use trail located along the perimeter of the park
• Six ADA accessible drinking fountains throughout the park site
• Six shaded benches with trash receptacles
• Twelve fitness stations
• One nature kiosk
• One fishing pier/ observation platform
• Eight covered picnic tables with trash receptacle (two tables ADA accessible)
• One energy fitness station. Centralized fitness area consisting of a minimum of five pieces of equipment
• Landscaping and irrigation
• One restroom facility with security cameras, one ADA water fountain, and one standard water fountain
• One parking lot – approximately 17 spaces

During the event, there will be a DJ on hand, and light refreshments will be served.  Also, A free t-shirt will be given to the first 150 participants registering for the run/walk at the event.

The project’s budget was $1,200,000, which included $200,000 from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grand and $248,000 from the Recreational Trails Program (RTP).

Mainlands Park is located at 4500 Monterey Drive.  Look for the signs once inside the entrance.