Hank Bryan Park reopens after update

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  • SARAH CAVACINI/Palatka Daily News. Eight-year-old Mayce Kelley spends Friday afternoon at Hank Bryan Park.
    SARAH CAVACINI/Palatka Daily News. Eight-year-old Mayce Kelley spends Friday afternoon at Hank Bryan Park.
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Children have another place to spend the summer since Palatka’s Hank Bryan Park reopened Monday with $50,000 worth of upgrades, city officials stated. 

A grant from the Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program allowed the city to upgrade the playground equipment, replace the sidewalk, renovate the picnic area, and add more fencing around the park, Palatka city officials said in a social media post on Thursday. 

Eight-year-old Mayce Kelley spent Friday afternoon playing at Hank Bryan Park with her grandfather. She practiced her upper-body strength with the cable slide. Kelley had to get a running start but she zoomed across the slide. 

She also spent her time completing learning games with her grandfather by using the spinning wheel device on the playground. Every time she got a correct answer, she got a quarter and by 1 p.m. Kelley was up to 23 quarters, she said. 

When asked if she liked the park, she enthusiastically said, “Yeah.” 

During Thursday’s City Commission meeting, the city’s Public Works Department director Del McMillan said the park was 99% complete but is still open to the public. 

Commissioner Will Jones mentioned during the meeting that the park has no public restrooms and he wanted city employees to look into the possibility of adding bathrooms at Hank Bryan. 

Interim City Manager Jonathan Griffith said the city has about $46,000 of its own money set aside for the park and it was originally meant to be spent to repair tennis courts at the park. However, Jones said the courts aren’t being used and would rather the money be spent on bathrooms at Hank Bryan. 

“You put new sidewalks out there encouraging people to go out there and exercise and walk but they don’t have a restroom to go to,” Jones said.

If the city is promoting the park to be a safe environment and one people should visit, he added, then there should be a bathroom. 

Commissioner Rufus Borom agreed, saying that anywhere there are public amenities, there should be facilities available. Mayor Robbi Correa said most of the city’s public places, including the downtown area, need public restrooms. 

“As a business person, I can tell you that people come in all the time looking for restrooms, so there are no public facilities downtown,” she said. 

Griffith said he and city staff would put together a budget for restrooms at the park before the city officials make a decision about adding bathrooms to Hank Bryan.