In recent seasons, the grass fields were closed for weeks at a time due to rain, nearly half the spring season last year. That was a time when nobody could go on them. Not the community. Not baseball players. It meant canceled games. It meant it lost practices, and it meant families scrambling.
Cash said the new designs for the garden were unveiled at a Parks and Recreation Commission meeting in July 2024. After several meetings to receive community feedback, she added, the city had hoped to get the garden fully opened by March of this year but faced some delays. Public Works Director John Cherbone said that one reasons was that some of the furniture, like the greenhouse, took a few months to come in.
"Thanks to this renovation, John Paul Jones Park has gotten a full facelift, with brand new benches, fully redone paths and plaza paving, and even a new entrance," said Rodriguez-Rosa. " These improvements make 'Cannonball Park,' as it's known in the neighborhood, an even more inviting space for classic events like the Kings County Memorial Day Parade." "Best of all," she added, the agency was able to complete the project "far ahead of schedule."