Key West The Newspaper

STOCK ISLAND – The Monroe County Commissioners spent the lunch break of their monthly Board of County Commissioners meeting to put on hard hats and pick up gold painted shovels to celebrate the upcoming redevelopment of Bernstein Park on Stock Island.

“A great day, an absolute great day,” said Commissioner Danny Kolhage, who represents District 1 that includes the park. “We all know that Stock Island has been overlooked for a long time. I’m from here, born and raised a half mile from here. And it’s always been that way. But things have changed.”

Kolhage said the change began with the last County Commission agreeing to build a new fire station on Stock Island, and has continued with the current Commission signing off on two new road and drainage projects for the area that will begin later this year.

“But the cornerstone of our efforts out here is this major capital improvement to Bernstein Park,” Kolhage said. “Bernstein Park, as you can see, sits at the heart of south Stock Island. It’s the only recreational area that this community has.”

The $7.9-million project will have a baseball field, soccer field, soccer practice field, playground, basketball court, exercise trail and new field lighting. It also will have a new 5,500-square-foot community center, with a large room and a smaller room for public use.

The project also will raise six acres of the park (the non-wetlands portion) by up to two feet to address flooding caused by rains and high tides that have hampered use of the fields. This will require about 20,000 cubic yards of additional fill.

The fields will have natural grass and be watered using rain water collected in cisterns and reclaimed water from Key West Resort Utilities.

“This is very exciting for a lot of reasons,” Monroe County Mayor Heather Carruthers. “We at the County have been working over the past eight years to make investments in the quality of life of folks from Key Largo to Key West.”

They include the Memorial Day Weekend opening of Rowell’s Waterfront Park in Key Largo; the $2.7 million investment in capital improvements to help preserve the Old Seven Mile Bridge in the Middle Keys and years of working on a master plan to redevelop Higgs Beach in Key West.

“And now, Bernstein Park,” Carruthers said. “It arguably serves the are in the Keys where we have the greatest concentration of our future, our kids.”

Construction will begin at the end of May and take about a year to complete. The park will be closed during construction. Funding comes from the one-cent infrastructure sales surtax. In 2012, Monroe County voters approved extending this surtax to 2033 with 68 percent of the vote.

“I believe that when we are finished here that Bernstein Park can be one of the finest recreational facilities in the keys and we’re all going to be very proud of it,” Kolhage said. “Now, let’s get to work.”