Work begins for new community park, municipal center in Westmoreland County community

Work has officially started on a new community park and municipal center in Hempfield Township.

Township Manager Aaron Siko said about two weeks ago, crews started clearing the land of trees and brush that had made up much of the property for decades before the township purchased it.

“Whenever you have a project like this, it’s not very often we can move from purchase of the property to breaking ground in under two years,” Siko told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek.

The 43-acre piece of land will have a dedicated 14-acres for recreation and park space. That’s all included in the first phase of the project that is underway now.

Crews will be working to extend utilities to the area, make walkways and build the park.

That park will have a splash pad, pavilion, nature park and more.

“[We’re] certainly trying to provide a regional asset, not just for Hempfield, but Greensburg, South Greensburg and all of central Westmoreland County,” Siko said.

People we’ve talked to say they’re excited for the project, especially for their kids to have a new place to play.

“We live right by there, so it’ll be great for them to get to go to!” Brittany Luczki said.

While the township acknowledges a lot of trees have to be torn down, they say they’ve actually saved 46 trees that were removed to be replanted at the new park, and more will be planted.

“We have, I think, 200 new trees that are being planted as part of this project within this first phase,” Siko said.

In May, the township had only received one bid for the park project. The township decided to re-work it and put it back out to bid in hopes more contractors would be interested.

“We’ve had a lot of interest from contractors for this, and we expect that we will have multiple bids for this at the rebid of the park project,” Siko noted.

Siko said the township will select a bid in late August. The first phase of the project will be done next September.

A ceremonial groundbreaking will be held Monday, August 12 at 10:30 a.m.

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