Neighbors gather to try out Santa Clara park renovation.

Byline: Serena Markstrom The Register-Guard

They traveled on bicycles, tricycles and on foot. Some carried hula hoops and Frisbees while others tugged their younger siblings in wagons, but these kids had one mission in common Thursday evening: to officially dedicate a Santa Clara-area park their neighborhood stomping grounds.

"This is a great park," 4-year-old Lilly Nino said, as her mom pushed her on a swing. "It's called Awbrey Park."

There were games, relay races, speeches, plenty of giggling and new grass stains. Mayor Kitty Piercy was there, too, and pointed out that attendees had eaten 50 pizzas.

"I didn't know the mayor was a girl!" Lilly squealed.

Piercy was an enthusiastic girl for this event, thanking the Junction City Polka Band for providing the perfect music for a day like Thursday that was "very upbeat, very sunny," Piercy said. "I remember coming here when it wasn't this beautiful. It feels great to be here."

Instead of a traditional ribbon-cutting, organizers attached blue crepe paper to two trees and held a three-legged race to break the "ribbon." Piercy and Parks and Open Space employee John Weber ran the race but were badly beaten by a bunch of kids who were much quicker on their conjoined feet.

Revamping Awbrey Park, which is just north of Spring Creek Drive on River Road, was possible because of a 1998 bond measure that gave the city $2.5 million to create new parks and improve existing ones, said Weber, a semi-retired landscape architect who designed the park.

His plan includes a yet-to-be-built bridge that would connect the park to subdivisions on the north end so kids wouldn't have to walk along River Road to get there, Weber said.

He said Awbrey's face-lift cost about $300,000. For that price, area families got playgrounds, concrete paths, a parking lot and street lights for safety.

Contractors didn't damage any trees excavating and building, Weber said.

Designers took Spring Creek, a wide-open field of grass and a wooded wildlife oasis into account.

For that reason, the play structures and paths are bunched into the southwest portion of the 6-acre park.

Part of the city's overall goal is for all people to have a park within a half mile of where they live or work, Piercy told the group.

Three-year-old Baily Schaefer got a ride from her dad to the park and said she liked it because it has so many, many things. "And I like pizza," she added.

When asked if she thought there would be pizza at the park every time she came, she replied with a confident, "Yes."

There won't be pizza, but everything else she liked will be there.