DIXON, CA (MPG) - Little Mateo Mata peered over the edge of a bright green rail at his sister Sophia as they played on the brand new playground structure under the watchful eyes of their grandparents. The two new bright green and yellow structures were installed recently at Hall Park, 100 North First Street, in the children’s play area next to the covered picnic tables at the end of the park. That’s some happy news but there’s more.

In the near future, Hall Park will also be receiving one new shade structure and across town at Northwest Park, there will be two new playgrounds plus one new shade structure thanks to some diligent work to find grant money by City of Dixon Community Development Director Larry Burkhardt.

“The grant was one discovered available through the State of California Natural Resources Agency through Parks and Recreation so it’s an allocation based on a formula and they assign a certain amount of money to a municipality,” Burkhardt said. “We applied and we got it.” The grant was for $177,592 but also required a 20 percent match from the City.

“We have also secured a $150,000 planning grant to address other improvements,” Burkhardt said. The existing playground structures located at Northwest Park have been in use for nearly thirty years, and are in need of replacement. Burkhardt worked with Louren Kotow, the City’s Interim Public Works Director on getting the grant application prepared with the matched funding component.

“After those projects are completed, several replacements/enhancements will occur at both Northwest and Hall,” Kotow explained. “A few drinking fountains will be replaced with new versions that have dog bowls and bottle fillers in addition to traditional spouts and there will be new barbecues which will be concrete with city logos at the two new shade structures.” If there are remaining funds, they will be spent on concrete ping pong tables, and then additional smaller concrete barbecues, she added.

“Due to the time constraints associated with the grant application, we’ll know more details at the next meeting about what will be installed and when it will be installed,” said Parks and Recreation Commission Chair Jocie Bair who has been told there are some contractor delays.

Other Commissioners are Loraine Hernandez-Covello, Charles King, April Seto, Angelic Villalpando, Mark Cooley and Student Rep. Dyrin Chavez. The next meeting will be via Zoom on Tuesday, April 27, as it meets on the 4th Tuesday of each month at 7 pm.

In addition to Hall Park which is actually located at East Mayes and South Fifth Streets, Dixon has other parks that have children’s playground equipment: Northwest Park on West H Street and Parkgreen Drive, Cornejo Park on Gill Drive and Wiegand Way, Patwin Park at West H Street and Pheasant Run Drive, and Veteran’s Park at 1300 Valley Glen Drive. There are also two without play structures but have picnic tables or benches: the Dixon Women’s Improvement Club Park on North First and B Streets and the Linear Path that runs Regency Parkway to North Lincoln Street.

There is also a park for furry friends via the Hall Park entry at South Seventh Street. For more information, contact the City of Dixon at (707) 678-7000.