By John Tredrea, Special Writer
LAMBERTVILLE — City officials want to make major improvements to Cavallo Park, on Mount Hope Street, and have applied for a $490,000 in Green Acres grant for the job.
An answer from Green Acres is expected in August, said Megan Ruf, of the city’s Recreation Commission. The city council voted unanimously last week to apply for the grant.
”We want to do a complete and total rehabilitation of the park, which is mainly used by tots — young children,” Ms. Ruf said Monday.
Planned is a new play structure for tots, with slides and climbers.
”We also want to do an addition to an existing play structure for tots,” Ms. Ruf said.
A new entrance for the park would have water fountains and an kiosk with information about the park and the city. “There would be a map of the town and information about places in Lambertville and upcoming special events in town,” Ms. Ruf said. “Inside the park would be a pavilion with a fireplace, and an area for barbecues and picnics that could be rented.”
The plans also calls for replacing a fence near a pond and putting a fenced “outlook,” from which tots and others could safely watch waterfowl.
Movies also are in the offing, to be shown on a screen that could be set up in front of a berm in the park.
Other planned amenities include a pathway around the perimeter of the park. “It would be a safe place for kids to bike and to learn how to ride bikes,” Ms. Ruf said. “With the amount of traffic in town and all the driveways, it can be hard to find a safe place to do that.”
The central area of the park would be left open, she said, “for soccer, playing tag and the like,” Ms. Ruf said.
Kick-starting the effort to revamp the heavily used park was a $10,000 grant from the New Hope firm, myYearbook.com.
Following that, the Recreation Commission and city architect, Michael Burns, began working on plans for a major upgrade.
In the works, Ms. Ruf said, is an application for a $25,000 trails grant from the federal government that would be used for work in the park.
In the meantime, Friends of Cavallo Park is working on fundraising for the project. A website will be set up that would allow contributors to earmark their donations for whatever park improvements they choose.

