Easter Egg Hunt at Allen Park in 2017

The City of Jamestown Parks Department will hold its Annual Easter Egg Hunt this Saturday in Allen Park.

The free event is for children ages 12 and under and will take place at 11:00 a.m. in the upper level of the park where the playgrounds are located.

Parks Manager Dan Stone said the event will have three different areas for kids to look for eggs, “The younger kids, 2 through 4, will be over on the kitchen side of the park where our big pavilion is and the smaller playground. And then across the street from that is the big playground and baseball field area. We’ll have the 5 to 8 year old group and the 9 to 12 year old group.”

Stone said the various city unions sponsored the event, “Our rock and our pillar of the community, the Allen Park Women’s Club, also will be there for the festivities and donated some prizes and candy, along with the Frewsburg Soccer Club. And this year, Pro Hardware, that is down on Fluvanna Avenue, will provide us with bikes to give to the middle aged kids group this year.”

Stone said the Jamestown Fire Department will be bringing the Easter Bunny to the park for the event and they will be joined by Wiffy the Tarp Skunk.

If weather conditions do not allow the event to take place outside, the event be moved inside the Allen Park Rink.

No registration is necessary for the event.

The free event will take place from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Council President Tony Dolce said it will be located on the Riverwalk behind the National Comedy Center and Board of Public Utilities between the two pedestrian bridges from Panzarella Island to the Washington Street Bridge, “And they’ll have all kinds of fun things of games and hay rides and costumes and I’m sure candy. All that fun stuff. As you know, this year because of the Allen Park Ice Rink being rented or leased out the (Frewsburg) Soccer Club, we aren’t able to have the indoor thing that we’ve had several years there.”

The City’s lease agreement with the Frewsburg Soccer Club states that the City will have use of the former Allen Park Ice Rink for the Easter Egg Hunt and Halloween Fun Fest. Dolce said the Parks Department wanted to try something different and hold the event outdoors this year.

For more information about the event, contact the Parks Department at 716-483-7554.

At the start of this year the club began using the facility for both practice and tournaments. That initial lease agreement for using the rink was for $1 a year for four years, but also with the understanding the club would be paying for the much-needed roof and lighting upgrades, along with heating improvements to the facility.

Mayor Sam Teresi said since the agreement went into place in February  the club has exceeded the city’s expectations in terms of improving and caring for the facility.

“The Frewsburg Soccer Club has been doing a terrific job – absolutely terrific. They’ve exceeded expectations in every sense for what they’ve done up there – the money they’ve raised, the improvements they’ve made, their day-to-day operations, the maintenance of the facility, the programming of activities, and their sensitivity to neighborhood around them. This is beyond our expectations,” Teresi said.

As a result of the success the group has had using the Ice Rink, it’s now signed a four-year lease extension to continue using the building, which goes along with the initial four-year lease signed at the start of 2019. That means the club will continuing using the facility until at least the end of 2026 – although an additional four-year option was also added.

The announcement of the extension came Wednesday during a signing ceremony at the ice rink.