On March 9th Mayor Gahan, local soccer teams and city officials cut the ribbon at Silver Street Park, New Albany’s new sports facility.The park houses a 50 yard by 50 yard indoor sports turf and concessions along with several outdoor features such as a football/soccer stadium with a pressbox, bleachers, lights, and scoreboards, two basketball courts, skate park, splash pad, playground, 1/2 mile walking path, 3 shelters, and an entertainment pavilion. This is the perfect venue for camps, practices, games, various leagues (soccer, wiffle ball, kick ball, volleyball, etc), running/walking, corporate outings, and more.
“We saw an opportunity to clean up the situation, inject some healthful opportunities for people, as well as create economic development for the neighborhood,” Mayor Gahan said. “We are very happy with the way it turned out. And I think that people that come here, they’ll find that it’s a great place to have fun, and gather, and get stronger.”Parks Director, Alicia Meredith said, “I think that the park means opportunity for the community of New Albany. There are so many different amenities that people can access all at one location, and that is very unique to our location. In our city, I don’t really think there’s something similar to that in southern New Albany, or Southern Indiana.”
Assistant Parks Director, Sean Payne agrees. “it’s going to help our youth become better athletes, whether it’s multiple sports, or single sport. But, in an overall sense, it just gets them out and active. And any time we can get people active, it promotes health and wellness. And that’s our goal.”Neighbors like Sarah Ring praise the park as a huge improvement over the industrial site that was once located at Silver Street. “it’s affected my quality of life, that’s for sure. I can roll right out my back door and over here to this walking track. It’s just fun hearing all these kids over here, and seeing them already come out. It’s a nice bridge between the housing development across the way, and our neighborhood, and it makes a nice joint venture for all of us. It’s fun to see the community come together around it,” Ring said.
Assistant Parks Director, Sean Payne agrees. “it’s going to help our youth become better athletes, whether it’s multiple sports, or single sport. But, in an overall sense, it just gets them out and active. And any time we can get people active, it promotes health and wellness. And that’s our goal.”Neighbors like Sarah Ring praise the park as a huge improvement over the industrial site that was once located at Silver Street. “it’s affected my quality of life, that’s for sure. I can roll right out my back door and over here to this walking track. It’s just fun hearing all these kids over here, and seeing them already come out. It’s a nice bridge between the housing development across the way, and our neighborhood, and it makes a nice joint venture for all of us. It’s fun to see the community come together around it,” Ring said.