Civitan Park

Kernersville Parks & Recreation Director Ernie Pages updated the Kernersville Board of Aldermen (BOA) on the status of the substantial renovations at Civitan Park at Tuesday’s BOA meeting at the Kernersville Municipal Chambers.
Once the renovations are completed, the new Civitan Park will be a significant upgrade of the old Civitan Park. The park previously had two basketball courts, a ball field (softball/baseball), horseshoe pits, a sand volleyball court and space for other activities. The new plan includes a redesigned walking trail and ballfield, four tennis courts, three pickleball courts, a basketball court, two shelters, a 40-yard dash with additional challenge course, a fitness court sponsored by Novant Health and a high-tech Sona Play Arch.
“We have made pretty good progress starting in August of last year. Right now, the park is sitting between 60-65 percent complete. Once we hit 80 percent completion, we can start applying for reimbursements from grants we received for the project,” Pages said.
Some aspects of the renovation are farther along than others.
Pages said the Novant Health Fitness Court is 100 percent complete and progress has been made on the parking lot expansion. The seven movement, seven-minute system provides a full-body workout to people of all ability levels. With over 30 pieces of bodyweight equipment, the fitness court can be used in thousands of ways.
“The parking lot expansion is 60 percent complete. It will be capped with brand new asphalt and will have medians in place for landscaping. It will be seamless and restriped,” said Pages.
Pages said the pickleball, tennis and basketball courts are near completion.
“Of the amenities we have in place, the pickleball and tennis courts and the basketball court are sitting around 80 percent complete. You can see the blacktop, asphalt, the fencing is up and the lights are installed. Now we are going to drill to put up pickleball and tennis nets,” said Pages.
Significant progress has also been made on the two shelters, as well as the baseball/softball field.
“The shelters have been installed and assembled with shingles and concrete slabs. Now it is just a matter of waiting for the ground to dry up, level it off and do our landscaping pieces,” Pages said. “The baseball field is 90 percent complete. We have grass, fencing and we have entryways. Everything is in place. The clay has been leveled out. We just have to put the base anchors (home plate and pitcher’s mound).
There is still a bit of work to do on the challenge course, which will have some American Ninja Warrior elements to it.
“It is about 30 percent complete. The site has been leveled off and graded. We are waiting for the dirt to dry up so we can so do some fittings. With the playgrounds we have there isn’t a lot for children over 10 to do. This will be a little different playground. It will more challenging for older children,” said Pages.
The highest tech aspect of the new Civitan Park will be the Yalp Sona Play Arch, which will have an interesting design, made of thick galvanized steel that makes it highly resistant to vandalism.
“A new company came up with it a couple of years ago. It is a cloud based interactive unit for people of all ages. It interacts and it stimulates stem growth by playing games. You just press a button to play a game. It will interact and play one of 15 games,” Pages said. “You can monitor how many times each game has been played, and you can switch out with 65 other games and keep it fresh. We’re pretty proud to get it. The only other city in North Carolina that has it is Asheville.”
According to the Yalp Sona website, the arch “transcends age, physical and emotional barriers,” and new games are continuously being developed and added.