Talbot Hill Reservoir Park renovations complete

Talbot Hill Reservoir Park is now open and the renovations are now complete.

On Oct. 31, the city of Renton announced the work on the park off Talbot Road South at 710 S. 19th St. is now complete, after the park opened in August.

The construction to restore the sports court and enhance the existing park locations for long-term use began in April.

The work included resurfacing and painting the courts for tennis and pickleball, improved drainage, a new ADA-accessible pedestrian bridge, a fully accessible pathway system, and an upgraded parking lot. Other improved park amenities include a new shade shelter, drinking fountain with bottle filler, bike racks, benches, court nets and barrier nets, updated court fencing and a repaired practice wall.

“This is a water reservoir and a water utility site first and a park second,” Renton Capital Projects Manager Betsy Severtsen said earlier this year. “So there’s some complexity to the project compared to the more typical park renovation projects.”

Severtsen said she thinks renovating parks helps encourage nearby residents to use the parks for their recreation needs.

“We saw with the pandemic in particular how important outdoor recreation is for folks’ physical and mental well-being,” Severtsen said. “This park gets a lot of passive good use from dog walkers, walkers and folks coming out to hit the ball around a little bit, but we are hoping to improve things so more people are interested in coming out to Talbot Hill Reservoir Park.”

Severtsen said regular renovations for the parks also will help save money in the long run.

“We just have to keep up with renovations so that things don’t degrade so much that we can’t replace them with much, much larger budgets or much bigger design changes or modifications,” Severtsen said.