Neighbors ask for replacement for park
Uniontown residents who said they spent their summer days frolicking on Lincolnview Park’s playground and basketball courts a generation ago said Thursday that the park has become a place for illicit late-night activity, and it’s time for a change.
At some point in history, the park was renamed Albright Park, and the city hasn’t opened it since vandals burned a playset to the ground in April 2005. Cindy Digga of Crest Street, which parallels the park, is among the 56 residents who signed a petition asking the city not to re-open the facility and, instead, replace it with homes.
She and a handful of residents living near the park met there with Uniontown Mayor Ed Fike and state Rep. Timothy Mahoney, D-South Union Twp.
The residents presented the officials with the petition and asked them to find a way to have two or three homes built on the property, which covers approximately 2½ acres.
“Believe me, we’ll work with you,” Fike said.
Mahoney suggested moving the pavilion, one of the few structures still standing, from Albright Park to Coal Lick Run Park.
Fike said he’d like to see a private developer build homes for first-time buyers on the property.
“We’ll do all we can do to help,” Fike said.
City Council gave development rights for the park to the Uniontown Redevelopment Authority in 2006.
Authority Executive Director Mark Yauger said the authority has been waiting for council to decide what it wanted to do with the property.
The hillside on which the Albright Park is located provides a panoramic view of downtown and the surrounding neighborhood.
Aside from the pavilion, the only structures that remain at the park are a block restroom building, which has been broken into and vandalized; parts of playground equipment; and poles that used to hold up basketball hoops and backboards.
Digga said there used to be a building where children from the neighborhood would make arts and crafts during the city’s summer recreation program.
“We were here all day. We never went home,” Digga said.
She said there also used to be a movie night at the park.
Now, residents said, the park is a place where people go at night to carry on illegal and lascivious activities.
“No one here wants a park,” Fike said.
Digga said she does not want the city to spend money rebuilding the park because it would probably end up like the last one did.
“We had a new park two years ago, and they burned it down,” she said.
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