It’s been talked about for as long as many can remember. Now, it has finally been completed.
Basin Spring Park, referred to by many as the “town square” of downtown Eureka Springs, celebrated a grand re-opening on Thursday, May 15, marking the completion of a months-long project to improve and refurbish many aspects of the park.
“We’re ecstatic with the way the park turned out, and hope you guys agree,” parks director Sam Dudley told the parks commission at its monthly meeting held Tuesday, May 20.
The main work at the park, which included repairs to the fountain’s foundation, laying down new concrete and planting new trees, has been a couple years in the making, Dudley said.
“Now that this phase of Basin has finished, this is the time to recap all that was accomplished in the past two years and thank those individuals and organizations that donated towards the cause of restoring and preserving our beautiful park,” Dudley said. “… So, new hand railing along the upper tier, new stairways at the southern entrance of the park, new steps up to the bandshell. We painted all the light posts, the bandshell itself, the hand railings. We refurbished the fire bell.
“We placed the crystal that’s underneath the bandshell and put a plaque on for that. There’s a new trail kiosk. We refurbished all the benches. … Restored and repainted the gazebo. The planting of six new beautiful trees, fixes to the northern stone wall. … New stairs to the upper bluff with a handrail as well. A new Humpty Dumpty statue. He’s excellent, by the way. We refurbished the whole plaza, meaning we resurfaced with stamped concrete. We restored the fountain, obviously, relocated the Doughboy and the flagpole. Added new hydration stations and new stairs at the main entrance.”
Dudley thanked the CAPC, Eureka Springs Preservation Society, Main Street Eureka Springs, Eureka Springs Arts Council and The Daughters of the American Revolution, Abendschone Chapter, along with Bruce Wright, the Banks Family Foundation and various contractors for their contributions in the project.
“And of course to the [parks] commission and staff for seeing these projects through,” he said.
Ruth Hager has been on the commission for many years and said refurbishing the park has been something that has been talked about for as long as she can remember.
“Since day one,” she said. “And before I was a commissioner, a couple of times I was on the chamber board and we had an Outdoor Tourism Committee, and I was on the Economic Development Committee, all of those things, before I was a parks commissioner. And we talked about redoing Basin Park then, too.”
Commission chair Mark Ingram echoed those thoughts.
“So, I know just in my short time it’s been talked about every single year, and … next year we don’t have to talk about it,” Ingram said.
The turnout at the grand re-opening event was special, Hager said.
“I was glad to see a lot of locals there … even a lot of people that over the years have been involved in things that have to do with Basin Park and parks and city things,” Hager said. “It was just the representation of our town at that event that was fantastic. Thank you, Sam, and the crew and everybody else you already thanked. I’m so glad that’s done. It’s phenomenal.”
