Volunteers are needed to help with cleaning up a parklet next week in downtown New Kensington.
Located at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Eighth Street, the small park was given the name “Corner Courtyard” when the community came together to create it in September 2017. Now mostly a patch of grass, it has a few benches and a small gazebo.
“It’s been let go,” said Martha Sproul, president of Pucketos Garden Club. “It needs to be refreshed.”
The cleanup is scheduled to begin at noon Thursday. Valley High School students, Scouts and others are expected to join garden club members and members of the city’s recreation commission.
While some materials and tools will be available, Sproul said volunteers can bring their own rakes, tools, and gloves.
“If anyone would like to join us, the more the merrier,” she said.
The lot is where the Liberty Theater once stood. It was built in 1920 and demolished around 1997, according to city officials.
The Liberty was among five theaters once in downtown New Kensington. Only two remain today — the Ritz, now home to Voodoo Brewery, and the Dattola — both on Fifth Avenue.
In July 1997, a garden had been planted at the Liberty lot by summer employees of the Private Industry Council and pupils from the Title I reading program. Residents donated many of the plants and shrubs.
By November 2013, a bocce court had been installed on the lot. The Spatacus Ladies League played against a team from Leechburg’s Marconi Club during the city’s winter festival market.
The court fell into disrepair until Arconic employees, residents, city officials and volunteers from Penn State New Kensington came out in August 2017 to create the park designed by Dante Cicconi, a city councilman and landscape architect.
It was part of the city and Penn State’s partnership to establish the “Corridor of Innovation” on Fifth Avenue.
“We designed it on a napkin and put it together,” Cicconi said.
Cicconi said he’s excited about the garden club getting involved in the park’s upkeep. He and Sproul said the park is in need of a general cleanup, weeding and mulching.
Cicconi said the city’s Shade Tree Commission plans to plant three trees in the park, and a few others along Fourth Avenue in front of the shopping center.
Sproul said they’ll put the garden to bed for the winter with plans to return in the spring. Members of the garden club have planted tulip bulbs at the park to create a “pink garden” that will come up next year.
“It’s an ongoing project,” she said.
Cicconi said the name “Corner Courtyard” was never official. Sproul said she would like for it to be named Liberty Park, after the theater.