PARC Project | City of Anna

The City of Anna has been awarded a PARC (Park and Recreational Facilities Construction Program) Grant in the amount of $2.8 million.

Plans

The plans for this project are to improve the ballpark and create a parking lot. The focus on this project is to enhance what we have and improve the accessibility of parking and accessing the ballpark, including making this park ADA accessible.

Users

Currently there are over 330+ local children that play summer league baseball/softball/t-ball on these fields (plus their opponents!). The Anna Indians Softball Team have their home field in this park. The Anna Indians Baseball Team previously utilized this area, but it hasn’t met their needs in some time, but we are striving to get them to utilize one of the new fields as their home field.

The Union County Fair utilizes this space for the participants of the big grandstand events to bring their vehicles/trailers/tractors in for the events and for parking.

The pond at the park is stocked each year by the city and is enjoyed by many for some peaceful fishing. There is also an annual event for Fishing with First Responders that is held at the pond.

The park has an 18-hole disc golf course and a few of the holes are located in this area as well.

Timeline

The City was awarded the PARC grant with an official start date of 02/17/2024. Design of the project is underway with plans to go out for bid in Fall 2024. Anticipated construction of the parking lot will begin first, with demolition of the current fields to begin after the 2025 SIBSA season, approximately July 2025.

Design

The design is currently in process. The City has put together a team that includes members from District 37 Softball & Baseball, SIBSA & UC Fair Board so that we can keep accommodating all of the groups that utilize this space. Below are some images of the preliminary design to paint the picture, but some of the details have already changed (i.e. the location of the removable walking path across the track has been changed, sidewalks connecting parking lot to ballfields has relocated, etc.)