Pine Peace Basketball Court Renovations Near Completion

 

Playground equipment was installed last week at the Pine Peace basketball court area as renovations near completion. Bleachers and a shading system will be installed soon.

St. John youth will soon enjoy a beautifully updated basketball court — complete with covered bleachers, an illuminated scoreboard and a new playground area — thanks to a private and public partnership to refurbish the Pine Peace court.

While there is a half-court at Gifft Hill School, the basketball court in Estate Pine Peace is the sole regulation size court on the island. Although used often, the often flooded area was badly in need of upgrades.

Government contractor Stone Masonry began work on the site, located across from E&C Service Station, several months ago. Work has included installing extensive drainage to solve the chronic flooding in the area, renovating the bathrooms, pouring a new court and installing new backboards and lighting.

The $386,000 government allocation, however, was not enough to cover costs for purchasing and installing new playground equipment, bleachers, a scoreboard and bleacher covers. Community activists Alice Krall and Nedra Ephraim successfully led a campaign to raise the additional $50,000 needed to complete the project.

The final pieces of equipment recently arrived on island and thanks to Stone Masonry workers and Fred Trayser Construction — which donated the time of a talented work crew — the playground was assembled last week despite a bit of a language barrier.
“Fred Trayser and his crew assembled the playground equipment and they’re also helping to assemble the bleachers,” said Gary Swanander, project manager for Stone Masonry. “There are great carpenters over there doing a tremendous job. The playground equipment instructions were in Chinese, so they had to figure that out.”

A concrete truck was at the site last week pouring stanchions for the bleacher covers, which should be going up soon. Crews also began assembling the bleachers last week.

Renovation work should be completed in about two weeks and, until then, people are asked to stay off the court, Swanander added.

“Just while we have open excavation we need to keep the kids out of the area,” said Swanander. “But it shouldn’t be too much longer.”

Final touches at the Pine Peace basketball court will include murals painted by Claudine Daniel, a shiny, new playground for tots, new bathrooms, a scoreboard and shaded bleachers along with the refurbished court itself, which will likely be the site of daily basketball action.

When work does wrap up, government officials will host an official opening ceremony and basketball tournament, according to Krall.