Calistoga City Council members last week approved a Logvy Park construction contract for more than half a million dollars, greenlighting the start of a renovation project first presented to the city more than five years ago.

“For our teenagers to exercise their body, they need to go to St. Helena, Napa, or Santa Rosa,” Luis Bernal said during last week’s City Council meeting, imploring members of the panel to approve the expenditure so the renovations could move forward.  

Logvy Park at Washington and North Oak Street has become a political matter of focus for Adelante, a local Latino civic affairs group that formed more than seven years ago. In 2019 the group proposed that the city budget close to $300,000 for Logvy Park amenities as a way to increase recreational opportunities for Calistoga children and teenagers. 

They succeeded.

But the community will only just now begin to see the project bloom with approval of an official contract for the work. The park renovations include an expanded picnic area, playground, a pedestrian walkway and two bocce ball courts. 

The project had been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but earlier this year the council included it in the city’s 2023-24 budget. The city also received grants to cover nearly half of the total contract expenses.

It appeared that the plans might be delayed yet again when at last week’s meeting Mayor Donald Williams initiated a debate by asking whether the bocce ball courts should be replaced by pickleball courts instead. 

“I wonder if the bocce ball courts make sense or if something like pickleball would be an alternative,” Williams said, prompting a nearly 45-minute debate amongst the elected officials. 

Vice Mayor Irais Lopez-Ortega, however, wasn’t having it.

“Grupo Adelante has been waiting for years for this project to move along; the community has been waiting to get where we are now,” Lopez-Ortega said. “If we stop this project now, it might never happen…I don’t want to continue with more meetings and waste more time.” 

Adelante’s park renovation proposal was designed with community input and guided by UpValley Family Centers staff, who encouraged the years-long community dialogue. 

Before the inception of the final park plan, the group held advocacy meetings with city officials, reviewed the city’s General Plan, developed concepts and started conversations with other allies, said Indira Lopez-Jones, Program Director of UpValley Family Centers and sister of Lopez-Ortega. The organization also brought in an architect and later a facilitator to help guide the progress of the group’s work through the city’s planning processes. 

“The dream project actually began in 2016 when a group of concerned parents identified the need to have more recreational spaces for families and children in the community,” Lopez-Jones said at the council meeting. “Adelante requested assistance and organized themselves to advocate for changes at Logvy even though English is not their first language, and they don’t have much experience working with government agencies.”  

Julie Garcia, the leader of Adelante and a local business owner, said in Spanish to the Tribune, “The Logvy park project was finally approved, and I am happy about that; it was a long process, but we understand that sometimes approvals can be difficult.”

Logvy Park is within walking distance to a number of apartment buildings where many Latino families live. Logvy Park renovations, Garcia said, are a way of creating a more equitable surrounding community.