Kings County community of Home Garden ready to open new park

HANFORD, Calif. (KFSN) -- Just in time for the summer months, Home Garden Community Park is set to open this Saturday. It's been a long time coming for the Kings County community of Home Garden, near Hanford.

It was supposed to open last year, but there were some building issues that caused delays. The agency that runs the park also wanted to make sure their insurance policy was in line.

"I get asked daily when it's going to open," said Home Garden Community Service District Board Vice-President Harold Reed.

The park features a playground, splash pad, soccer field, and plenty of space to have a picnic.

It was largely paid for with a $1.9 million grant from the state department of parks and recreation. The money comes from Proposition 84, passed in 2006. It's the only park in Home Garden.

"The closest one would probably be Coe Park and for some people who don't drive or aren't able to, they have to walk over there, walk their kids over there, and this would just help them have some place to go," said Latoya Tate, also with Home Garden Community Service District.

Damareus Huddleston grew up in home garden, but didn't have a park to play in.

"The kids used to play yard to yard, that's what we did," Huddleston said. "Either that or play in the street, you know ride the bikes around the neighborhood, we didn't have nothing to play on."

But now that it's here, Huddleston thinks he'll bring his younger sister to the park.

People who live in Home Garden hope the park will improve home garden's image as an unsafe place, an idea they say is unfair. And now that it's theirs, they also hope everyone who visits, respects it.

"It's ours, it's not like it belongs to somebody else," Reed said. "It belongs to us in the district, so we want to make sure we try to keep it up, take care of it, so it will last years to come."