Work underway to revitalize Memorial Park in Sudbury

As part of its downtown action plan, Greater Sudbury has begun a major revitalization of Memorial Park downtown, work that will continue until June.

Work to revitalize Memorial Park is underway in the heart of downtown Sudbury. Officials with Greater Sudbury said Friday the work is part of its downtown action plan.

Crews were on site this week, dethatching grass in the park, cutting trees and planting grass seed.

“We have had a lot of deferred maintenance over the last few years,” said Jeff Pafford, the city’s director of parks and recreation services.

“The efforts that you see here are really about turf restoration, improving sight lines and, eventually, facilitating future programming and events in Memorial Park.”

Downtown Sudbury welcomes the work to revitalize the park and make it more welcoming.

“Over the past little while, it just hasn’t been (maintained) the way that people would hope,” said executive director Jeff MacIntyre.

“It makes it difficult for organizations to (host events) in the park (and) bring people out because it’s not as clean or friendly or welcoming as we would like it to be.”

Area fenced in

The city said the north end of the park will remain fenced until the spring to secure a safe working area.

“It’s really to allow -- once that work is done -- for the grounds to be preserved and all these efforts in turf restoration to make sure that the grass can grow,” said Pafford.

The southern section of the park remains open and available for Remembrance Day. Work there will start in the spring.

“The efforts you see here in Memorial Park are part of the city’s overall downtown action plan,” he added.

“Key pillars of that are beautification and animation of spaces like Memorial Park (to) make downtown a more welcoming and vibrant area.”

There are also plans to install a concrete pad for a vendor area that could accommodate food trucks.

The city said the revitalization work will continue this fall and resume in the spring. A completion is slated for June, in time for summer events in the park.