Heroes Park, the playground planned across the street from Van Alstyne's new police and fire headquarters, has a groundbreaking date.
The city announced in a video posted Tuesday, Oct. 20, that the ceremony will be held at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, at the new public safety facility. In the video, Bethany Budgewater, founder of the Van Alstyne Police Association, describes what people can expect.
The park has been a police association effort. When local leaders signed a beam at the public safety building's topping ceremony in March, Budgewater, the group's president, told KXII the playground would be built for children of every ability and would include a covered pavilion, restrooms and a rock wall 8 feet tall.
Its spot across from the station is deliberate, she said then, so children can see and talk with officers and firefighters every day.
"There's something for every kind of child," she told the station at the time. Organizers said in March they hoped to finish raising money in time to hold one ribbon cutting for both the park and the public safety building. The city's announcement does not say how much has been raised or when the park would open.
The building next door
The public safety facility is a roughly $30 million project of more than 40,000 square feet that will house both the police and fire departments, according to KXII. It adds administrative space, conference rooms, an office for the fire marshal and improved living quarters for firefighters who work 48-hour shifts.
