Federal funding helps ABQ foot the bill on park upgrades

A federal grant will cover half the cost of upgrades to the International District’s Mesa Verde Park.

The park will receive $1,350,000 of the $254 million that the National Park Service is allocating in grants. The Interior Department, which announced the funding Wednesday, called it the largest investment in the history of the Land and Water Conservation Fund’s Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program.

Of the 54 projects that will receive funding, Mesa Verde Park is the only New Mexico park on the list.

Mayor Tim Keller stopped by the park briefly on Wednesday, which is in state Senate District 17, where he was elected in 2008 and began his career in New Mexico politics.

“We know this area has had challenges for a long time, for decades, and we want to make sure that everyone knows in this part of the city but also throughout the city is that we are not going to give up on our older historic neighborhoods,” Keller said. “Especially the International District.”

Among the upgrades to the park are converting the tennis courts to basketball and pickleball courts, play sets for children, adding trees, lighting a dog park and creating a loop path that connects the art structures.

“It is so important to provide green space — easy access to green space — in an urban environment, urban setting,” said Dennis Vasquez, deputy director of the city’s Parks and Park and Recreation Department. “We know the health benefits; mental, spiritual and physical health benefits correlate very closely to access to green space.”

In addition to the courts, grass and art, the park is also the home of Mesa Verde Community Center.

Keller said the project was influenced by the area’s residents, some of whom are his former neighbors who asked when the city would invest in La Mesa Neighborhood as other projects and improvements popped up around the area.

“As we fixed up Wilson Park and then said we’re fixing up Phil Chacon, La Mesa neighborhood was like, ‘What about us? Like, we’re the other cornerstone of the International District,’” Keller said. “I said, ‘You’re next. I just need a couple of extra million dollars,’ and that’s what we got today.”

He declined to say what neighborhood in his old political district would receive attention and upgrades next.

“With this one, I think we’ve got to work on execution, right? We have designs, but we got to get the firm, we’ve got to map it out, we’ve got to lock in the cost and make sure that we can totally deliver on this.”

The estimated cost of the upgrades to the park is $2,600,000 with the city still ponying up its half of the cost.

Construction is expected to take roughly 20 months. A date has not been set for groundbreaking.