Water plant construction just a part of future of Miller Park - Lancaster Eagle Gazette

Water plant construction just a part of future of Miller Park
Aaron Burd

LANCASTER − A new water plant is expected to coexist alongside Miller Park at the end of its construction.

As construction on the new water plant continues at Miller Park, members of the Lancaster community have been curious about the status of the park. Despite this construction, Lancaster Parks and Recreation affirmed that the park would remain open and fun for the public.

Lancaster Parks and Recreation Superintendent Steven Gayfield explained that despite a loss of land, this will actually present an opportunity for Miller Park.

"Obviously, we're going to lose part of the actual parkland itself, we already have where they're putting in the new water plant," said Gayfield. "But it's also going to give us an opportunity for one of our bigger and one of our older parks to kind of refresh the park and update it, which is probably needed."

Gayfield emphasized the importance of Miller Park, saying that it is the city's gateway park.

"It's the first park (park) you see when you drive through the main part of town, so we want to make sure whatever we do after the plant's done, that we do it well," said Gayfield.

Among the changes that Gayfield foresaw potentially coming to Miller Park in the future included updating the pool, adding a water park or splash pad, bringing in a new playground, relocating the skate park, and more. He did elaborate that these plans are all conceptual at the moment, with work being a couple of years away from taking place.

One inconvenience that Lancaster Parks and Recreation faced was having to relocate baseball games that were originally supposed to take place at Miller Park. However, Gayfield cited this as an opportunity.

More: Could a splash pad or water park be in Lancaster's future?

"We relocated those fields and games, specifically for baseball, to some of the neighborhood parks," said Gayfield. "It's worked well for us."

"It has put people in parks that they may not have been using for a while, so we've been able to accommodate the baseball leagues and get their games in," said Gayfield.

While their plans for Miller Park are still in the conceptual stage, Gayfield said that their strategy should become clearer in the next year or so.

"We have that conceptual design, but probably in the next year or so, we're going to start doing more in-depth planning for that and looking for funding sources," said Gayfield.

According to Gayfield, Miller Park has a lot of potential for development but that comes with a cost. Figuring out the financial situation will be one of the top priorities in planning any additional projects for the park.

"It's important to the community, so it's a big part of our plans moving forward," said Gayfield.