PROVIDENCE, R.I. — More than just green grass will be coming up in city parks this spring.

For starters, a Warwick landscaping company's bid of less than $160,000 was accepted to install features and plants in Roger Williams Park.

Some of the city's 100 neighborhood parks are also getting upgrades, with 56 projects starting in the next few weeks, said Brian Byrnes, deputy superintendent of Parks + Recreation. That work is in addition to the spring cleanups of trash, leaves and branches.

"Open spaces are really vital to the quality of life in Providence," said Parks Supt. Wendy Nilsson. "We want our places to be as unique and as special as the neighborhood they're in."

Byrnes said that when he and Nilsson were hired about this time last year, retiring Parks Supt. Robert F. McMahon gave them a list of unfunded projects. Now there's money to tackle them, thanks to grants from a R.I. Department of Environmental Management bond issue, the Rhode Island Foundation, plus private donations, Community Development Block Grants, other categories of DEM money and Parks Department resources such as experienced workers.

In the neighborhoods, softball fields will be renovated, and new play structures, lighting, benches and tables will be installed, Byrnes said.

One park will get a synthetic mini soccer field, and the Amos Early Park on Cadillac Drive is getting telescoping net poles to allow the same court to be used for volleyball, tennis or pickle ball (a smaller version of tennis).

The most exciting development, Byrnes said, is what's happening at the Joslin Playground, on Kossuth Street in Olneyville.

Instead of a standard spray park that can only be used two months in the summer, he said, Joslin is getting a meandering stream made of blue Aquaflex, a soft-on-the-feet water play surface that in the summer will channel sprayed water into a rain garden and the rest of the year will be a pretend stream. Children can follow it under a little bridge, alongside a "fishing pier" and past a lighthouse, Byrnes said. There will be a slide and boulders to climb.

In Roger Williams Park, Yard Works will fix the Rose Garden's brick walkways, replace an ailing hedge, install a more modern irrigation system and add benches among the roses.

The Elmwood Avenue entrance will get a lighted sign with a fieldstone backdrop and granite posts leading in.

The Broad Street entrance will get a grassy center island to soften the industrial look, Byrnes said, and an irrigation system will help sustain new shrubs and trees.

Irrigation and new plantings will also go in at the Casino, where a sculptural fountain will be raised and flower beds added below it.

In Byrnes's view, "Roger Williams Park is in black and white, and we're going to bring it back to color."

dnaylor@providencejournal.com

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