More than 30 youths turned out for a recent bicycle competition hosted by the Willow Creek community in Clinton, pedaling through a 50-yard sprint and other races. But residents had more to celebrate than the success of the third annual event.
Fox Run Community Park, the staging ground for the "Tour de Creek" competition June 13, has been allotted $425,000 beginning July 1 under the Capital Improvement Program after residents lobbied for nearly four years.
The money will transform the 21-acre park from a grassy field with a baseball diamond and football field to a park with a playground, paved walking and biking trail, two lighted tennis courts and two covered pavilions.
The funds have been disbursed in two stages, beginning with $100,000 allocated July 1, 2008. The second part of the funding, amounting to $325,000, will become available July 1 and has been approved by the Prince George's County Council.
"The community is so active," said Lariena Matthews, meeting planner for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and a Clinton resident. "We were adamant. We wouldn't drop it. We were consistently contacting them."
The design for the park is headed by Don Herring, senior planner for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission's Park Planning and Development Section, said Milton S. Kendall, Willow Creek's Neighborhood Watch coordinator with his wife, Franchella Kendall. The Neighborhood Watch polled residents to see what they would like in the park.
The improvements are still in the very preliminary stages, and although residents and the M-NCPPC know what they would like in the park, M-NCPPC needs to survey the site, Herring said.
"We're going to evaluate the existing site to see how the new amenities will complement the park," Herring said. "We'll try to sustain the site as much as possible."
Herring hopes to have the design complete by spring 2010 and construction finished by winter 2012.
Even in its current state, Fox Run Community Park hosts its share of community events.
The improvements to the park, in addition to the youth bicycle competition, are part of a Neighborhood Watch initiative to prevent crime, Kendall said. "It's a way to get people together to mingle and get to know each other."
The annual Tour de Creek competition has been a huge success in the community. Children from ages 1 to 18 are eligible to participate. There were about 35 participants in the event June 13 and around 125 adults volunteered to help.
There were four races: the training wheel loop, for bikes with training wheels; the 50-yard sprint; the half-mile race, and the two-mile endurance loop, Kendall said.
County Council Chairwoman Marilynn Bland (D-Dist. 9) of Clinton attended the bicycle competition to encourage children to ride safely and to talk to the community about development plans for the park, according to Bland's chief of staff, David Billings.
Debbie Tyner, M-NCPPC's division chief of southern area operations, also updated the community on plans for the new developments.
The bicycle event was supported by the Prince George's Police Department, the Maryland-National Capital Park Police Prince George's County Division and the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office. Police blocked off roads along the cycling courses and provided six police motorcycles from the different stations to ride along with the children.
Organizers tried to make the event as professional as possible for the youths who participated. There were tables with drinks just for the riders, numbers on the youths' backs identifying them as racers, and support teams in case the riders needed bike repairs.
After each child crossed the finish line, residents stayed to spend time together, Kendall said.
"We have a rule no one can eat until the kids finish riding," he said. "They have to watch the kids."
