Parks, Recreation and Marine employees (including Director George Chapjian, second from left) with 9th District Councilmember Steve Neal. Photo by Sarah Bennett.
Less than one month after City Council approved the Fiscal Year 2013 budget, the outdoor courts at Ramona Park in North Long Beach received a much needed face lift.
At the grand opening of the park’s repaved and updated outdoor basketball, tennis and roller hockey courts Saturday, Councilmember Steven Neal praised the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine for their work in getting the courts game-ready again.
“This is an area of great need,” Neal said before playing a celebratory one-on-one basketball game against Parks Department Director George Chapjian. “By resurfacing the court and replacing the backboards, they have made this facility more attractive.”
Ramona is one of the more active parks in the city, with Parks and Rec’s free youth sports programs filling its baseball diamond, soccer fields, tennis and basketball courts year-round. But many there for the grand opening say that the basketball courts specifically, had fallen into disrepair.
“Refurbishing the basketball courts was a priority,” said Floyd Livingston, Councilmember Neal’s District Communications Organizer, of the park’s regular-sized basketball court and adjacent roller hockey area which is often used instead as a youth-sized basketball court. “You could see the rebar.”
Neal’s office played a role in finding funding for the repaving project, which—along with other Parks, Recreation and Marine money—was originally written out of the FY2013 budget. As soon as funds were shifted to restore some of the cuts and the final budget was approved in September, construction began at Ramona.
About 25 people came out for Saturday’s Halloween-themed ribbon-cutting on the new basketball courts, many of whom were local youth and teen players with balls in hand, eager to get the ceremony over with so they could start playing.