If you're on the edge of your seat waiting for the new district park to open at North Silverbell and North Cortaro roads in Marana, you only have a little longer.
Crews are still on target to finish the park by Dec. 28. Construction began in June.
When completed, the park — which will receive its name after the winners of a naming contest are announced — will have something for nearly everyone. It will include a festival area, six picnic ramadas and a group ramada, lighted fields and courts for soccer, baseball, softball, volleyball and basketball, a dog park with a section for large dogs and another for small dogs, horseshoe pits, a water play area, exercise stations and benches and a paved walking trail.
The project's cost is $3.31 million, with D.L. Withers Construction at the helm.
The biggest challenge in building the park was working around some archaeologically sensitive areas, said Mac Murray, construction inspector for Marana's public works department.
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Aside from three areas that were already slated for preservation and display, crews found Hohokam Indian artifacts and pit houses under the large baseball field, he said.
"The Indian artifacts were a surprise for the park. We knew about them when we were building the roadway, but they were a surprise to the park," Murray said, referring to last year's widening of North Silverbell Road along the west side of the park site.
A local archaeology firm excavated and removed the items, he said.
"That's really been our largest issue, has been the archaeology," Murray said.
But in the end, with the three display sites being included, "our greatest obstacle has turned into one of Marana's finest treasures."
Options for sports groups
Meanwhile, youth sports organizations are eager to begin using the park, said Bill Ward, regional commissioner for American Youth Soccer Organization region 206.
About 90 to 95 percent of that region's 850 to 1,100 players are from the Marana area, he said.
"Most of the kids in our area are from the Marana school district, so this is a great thing to have in the center of the area like that," he said.
Though the park includes just two soccer fields at a time when there never seem to be enough fields, he said, "We're real excited. We have all kinds of plans."
The park will enable his organization's teams to move practice from school fields to the nicer park fields, and it will allow the group to spread out its weekend games a bit more, he said.
Contest will decide name
The contest to name the new park — which has been referred to thus far as the Silverbell-Cortaro District Park — ended Sept. 30, and the winner or winners will be announced at the park's grand opening event Feb. 27, said Tom Ellis, Marana director of parks and recreation.
"We've got close to 100 suggestions," he said.
The potential names have been forwarded to the town's Parks and Recreation Citizens Advisory Commission. The group meets today and will pick out its favorite five to seven names, he said.
The commission will forward those choices to the Marana Town Council, which will choose the three top names.
Then the town will run a contest through local media to allow people to vote, Ellis said.
The contest sought names that recognize the area's history.
"By and large, many of the names that were suggested do just that," Ellis said. "People were very thoughtful and creative in the names that they suggested."
By the Numbers
$3.31 million
Project's cost
48
Number of acres
1.2 miles
Length of Santa Cruz multi-use path included in park
400
Number of parking spaces
3
Number of lighted, multi-use ball fields
2
Number of lighted soccer fields
2
Number of lighted basketball courts
2
Number of lighted sand volleyball courts
3
Number of archaeological sites to be preserved
Source: Town of Marana
