Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department and Miami-Dade County District 9 Commissioner Dennis C. Moss dedicated new amenities at William Randolph Community Park, 11950 SW 228 St., on Saturday, July 30.
The park’s enhancements are targeted at getting people moving and improving their health and fitness and enjoying more time outdoors.
This marks the completion of a new fitness-focused and “green-minded” park development for the 10-acre lakefront park that opened in 2013.
The new park amenities include a new fitness area with state-of-the-art outdoor gym equipment for cardio and strength training exercises, a shade canopy and five park benches. The site also received new walkways, new access fencing and gates, and new landscape plantings that include 19 Live Oaks. There also is a new parking area with a new French drainage system that redirects rainwater into the soil to help water the surrounding greenery. Guardrail improvements also were made to the service road.
Last year’s improvements included a lakeside walking/jogging path, additional shade trees and shrubs, car and bicycle parking spaces, and drainage upgrades, among others.
“I am pleased to see these new amenities added to William Randolph Community Park. Improvements like this help to improve not only a person’s health, but also promotes the health and livability of the neighborhood,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez.
“William Randolph Park is surely becoming a spring of health and wellness for this community. The outdoor gym equipment and other park enhancements will provide families with more great spaces for physical exercise and relaxation,” Commissioner Moss said.
“We are very proud of transformations being made at William Randolph Community Park,” said Jack Kardys, Miami-Dade County Parks director. “It’s all part of our ongoing efforts to revitalize parks and open spaces for Miami-Dade’s sustainable future.”
The Miami-Dade Parks Capital Programs team designed the park development project, which was built by ComTech Engineering Inc. and Bofam Construction. The project cost was approximately $886,000. Funding was provided by the Quality Neighborhood Improvement Program (QNIP) and Impact Fees.
For directions, call 305-257-0310 (Homestead Air Reserve Park.)
William Randolph Community Park is named after William Randolph, an early pioneer of the surrounding Goulds subdivision. In 1900, William Randolph filed a U.S. Homestead Application for a 160-acre tract of land in southern Miami-Dade County, now known as “Goulds.” He received the property deed 12 years later, during William Howard Taft’s presidency. In July of 1920, he and his wife, Ana, platted the Goulds subdivision. A significant African American pioneer homesteader of Miami-Dade, Randolph went on to help other African Americans in his community to become landowners by selling off most of his land very inexpensively or simply giving it away, free of charge. In addition, he donated a five-acre tract to build a school for area youth, which is now home to Pine Villa Elementary School and Mays Middle School.
