Parque Zaragoza Neighborhood Park Recipient of an ACL Music Festival Parks Improvements Community Grant; Funds to improve public health and usability

We are honored to announce that Parque Zaragoza Neighborhood Park is an Austin Parks Foundation ACL Music Festival Parks Improvements Community Grant recipient of $50,000 for the park's 'Historic Pool' to receive canopy shade installations. 

Built in 1933 during the Great Depression and beginning of the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, Parque Zaragoza Neighborhood Park’s Pool is one of the City of Austin’s earliest man-made pools. At the time of the pool’s construction, the accompanying bathhouse/caretakers cottage was built, and was then expanded by the National Youth Association and community volunteers in 1941 to become a two-room recreation center, used until 1996. 

Though Parque Zaragoza is known for its heritage Oak Trees, shading around the Pool area is almost nonexistent. This much needed park improvement will help protect the community-stakeholders, including Parque Zaragoza Recreation Center Summer Camp children and Aquatics staff, from life-threatening and other sun exposure health risks. Such risks from the sun and UV radiation exposure include Skin Cancer, Immune Suppression, Eye Damage, such as Cataracts and premature aging.

Parque Zaragoza is one of five community grants totaling $199,000 that the Austin Parks Foundation is giving for parks and green spaces this 2019 fall cycle. The others are:

• Austin Nature & Science Center ($50,000) – Installation of shade structures over the Dino Pit area
• Preston Field ($50,000) – Upgrading to match recently improved Weber Field for South Austin Baseball
• Roy G. Guerrero Metropolitan Park ($35,000) – Development of a trail and long-term habitat restoration along the trail
• Barton Springs Conservancy ($14,000) – Re-establishment of native plants and natural habitat to the historic pool

 
About Austin Parks Foundations Grants Program
 
Austin Parks Foundation’s ACL Music Festival Park Grants Program, Community Grants are intended for larger community-initiated physical park improvement projects that require between $5,000 and $50,000 in funding like signage installations, trail building and planning, physical improvement, and park maintenance. The grants have been awarded since 2006 but became offered twice a year in 2017. Since inception, APF has donated over $3 million to Austin’s park system through our Park Grants Program.

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