New Castle County is planning major upgrades to Bechtel Park. Ken Mammarella photo
Pickleball is in, and handball is out in a concept for Bechtel Park.
New Castle County has scheduled a meeting on Monday, Aug. 12, to outline its plans for the 25-acre county park on Naamans Road in Brandywine Hundred, just west of Talley Middle. The meeting will be 6-7:30 p.m. at the Claymont Library, 400 Lenape Way.
“The plan that is online and that will be shared at the community meeting is a conceptual plan that shows a proposed new layout and recommendations for included facilities,” said Kendall Sommers, manager of the parks division in the county public works department. “The meeting will be designed to get additional feedback to include prior to finalization.”
This map shows New Castle County’s current plan for Bechtel Park.
“The list of proposed improvements” include a new park layout, pickleball courts, tennis courts, a new playground, places to play basketball and soccer, walking paths, parking and drainage improvements, according to a landing page for the project.
The park’s current page says it now features a baseball/softball diamond, a basketball court, a soccer field, handball facilities, a playground, paved trails, picnic tables, restrooms, a wooded area and parking.
“We are seeing increasing problems with the existing drainage systems in the park,” Sommers said. “This infrastructure is around 50 years old and needs to be replaced. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the drainage infrastructure runs under a number of the existing recreational facilities. While we are improving the drainage in the park, we are taking the opportunity to update the park facilities.”
“The county will spend $4,250,000 on this comprehensive facelift,” County Council member Dee Durham said.
A map of the county’s concept – prepared by Landmark Science & Engineering and posted online by the county – shows two basketball courts (which is what the park now has), two tennis courts (the park now has four) and eight pickleball courts (the park now has none).
The map shows the soccer field moving from the southwest corner to the northern middle section of the park, on land now occupied by the tennis, handball and basketball courts. The ball field will also move.
A road that loops around the northern part of the park will become a walking path, the map shows.
More parking spots are planned where the soccer field now is. The larger lot in the front will be useful when Ivyside, a farmhouse on the site, is returned to use after it is renovated.
A local nonprofit is working with the county’s public works department to acquire funding for renovating Ivyside, Durham said.
The county said in July that it will soon be contracting a tree company to remove dead ash trees no the southeast side of the park.
The county in 2023 sought bids to lease Ivyside “to an entity that will invest in the house and create a community-based recreation center.”
Plans for other parks
Another page on the county’s website gives this timetable for sports court updates and playground replacements:
Basketball courts
Buckley Park – completed
Brevoort Park – completed
Paper Mill Park – summer 2024
Sherwood Park – summer 2024
Talley Day Park – summer 2024
Sheridan Square Park – summer 2024
Tennis courts
Paper Mill Park – summer 2024
Playground replacements
Delcastle Recreational Park – completed
Woodland Run OBP Park – completed
Rebekah G. Leithren Park – completed
Todd Estates IV Park – completed
Fairfax North Park – completed
Longview Farms Park – completed
Northcrest Park – completed
Fairfax South Park – completed
Weiss Park (Addition) – completed
Banning Park – summer 2024, addition of 2- to 5-year-old play structure
Lesher Memorial Park – late summer 2024
Collins Park – fall 2024, replacing main structure
Glasgow Pines Park – fall 2024
Brookfield Park – fall 2024
Penn Acres 7 Park – fall 2024
Rutledge Park – fall 2024: Work has started to remove the old parking lot, basketball courts and playground. All work should be complete and open for play at the end of September 2024
Powell Ford Park – fall 2024
Rolling Park – playground structure completed; bridge replacement completed
