On Aug. 31, the City of Renton held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the reopening of Kiwanis Park at 815 Union Avenue following a renovation that began earlier this year.

Kiwanis Park, originally known as President’s Park in the early 1960s, is a nine-acre neighborhood park in the Renton Highlands.

The park closed for construction on April 26 as the city planned to add several new amenities and features with funding made available by the passage of the 2019 Parks Bond.

The park reopened on Aug. 8 after a 17-month makeover project that included adding accessible entrances and a looped walkway, replacing and updating the playground, renovating the parking area, demolishing an older activity building, adding a new picnic shelter and adding a paved plaza.

The project also included renovating the basketball and sports courts, ballfield improvements with a synthetic all-weather surface infield and natural turf multi-purpose field, ballfield backstop updates with covered dugouts, and new signage.

The city also added a restroom structure designed to be easily maintained.

According to the city, the park was designed with principles and elements that are intended to discourage crime through the layout and design of its environment.

Terra Dynamics Inc. completed the construction. Funding for the project came from the 2019 Renton Parks Bond funds, Parks Impact Mitigation Fees, 2019 King County Proposition No. 1 Parks, Recreation, Trails and Open Space Levy funding, and local funding sources.