A contractor on Thursday poured concrete at Pocket Park in Pottsville to develop a 15-step staircase leading from street level to a pergola.
"And soon there will be a railing around the pergola, railing coming down the steps, a railing along the front of the park, bordering the sidewalk, and the installation of a cistern," Franklin Shiffer, housing development coordinator at Schuylkill Community Action, said Thursday.
Using state grant funding it acquired through the Elm Street Program, Schuylkill Community Action, Pottsville, is paying Primeau Services, Newtown, $23,066 to do a series of construction projects at the park at 521 N. Centre St.
Marc Primeau, owner of Primeau Services, was at the park Thursday morning with Shiffer and Jeffrey A. Feeser, director of housing at Schuylkill Community Action.
The establishment of the park is one of the final projects Schuylkill Community Action has committed to as part of the city's five-year Elm Street Program.
In November 2004, the state Department of Community and Economic Development and Pennsylvania Downtown Center, Harrisburg, admitted the City of Pottsville into the program.
During that time, DCED invested $500,000 in the city's Elm Street Program while $300,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funds was used for its projects.
"We only have $4,000 to $5,000 left," Feeser said.
The Elm Street project area is North Centre and Nichols streets, home to 120 property owners. The program provides funding for facade improvements, street and sidewalk renovations and other beautification projects, Feeser said.
Michael G. McGeever, who served as Elm Street manager from March 2007 until his death in February 2009, came up with the concept for Pocket Park.
Work to establish it began in 2008, when the city demolished run-down buildings at 521-523 N. Centre St. The park is being developed on the remains of a stone foundation once occupied by those blighted buildings.
Contributions to this park were made by numerous community organizations and businesses, including Bethesda Evangelical Congregational Church, Reedsville, which built a walkway.
Time and materials to build a "spring house" at the site will be made later.
Northeast Prestressed Products, Cressona, will donate the cistern and Primeau Services will install it, Shiffer said.
Primeau said he wasn't certain when the cistern would be installed.
"It depends on what kind of slop we run into," Primeau said.
Primeau Services has been using a mini excavator to dig out the area. October rains made the hillside muddy.
"The amount of rain we got is affecting the project now. We have to overcome that before we can go in there and do a lot," Primeau said.
Feeser said he hopes the railing and the cistern will be put in before the end of the year.
Primeau said it may take a week for the concrete steps to cure. Then, he'd like Donald J. Chescavage, city code enforcement officer, to examine the site before the railing is put in.