Work to replace an aging pavilion and playground equipment at the Grier City Park in Rush Township was recently completed.

The park, which is in the village of Grier City, now also has handicapped parking spaces, a paved handicapped accessible trail and a larger parking area.

Also recently, a new pavilion was erected at Miller Park in the village of Hometown.

“Grier City was a park project we picked up 5 years ago and we updated the facility for cooking, and they do cookouts and have movie nights and stuff,” Supervisor Robert Leibensperger said following Thursday’s board meeting. “The pavilion was falling apart.”

The township applied for two grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Resources to help fund the work at the park, along with a separate DCNR grant for the pavilion at Miller Park.

“We are putting work into our parks because two thins are required to have a good municipality: one you have to have recreation, and two, you have to have recreation that involves different groups from small children all the way up to senior citizens.”

Leibensperger said the Grier City Park is also used for free summer lunch programs for school children, and takes rentals for the pavilion.

“There is so much that goes on in that park,” he said.

Leibensperger hopes residents get involved with township parks, like they do at Grier City and Miller parks.

“We want to get people involved for our Quakake park and for our Ryan Park (in Hometown) so we can do the same things for those parks,” he said, noting the township wants to invest in parks based on what the residents want and need. “If you don’t have a community involvement, you’re not going to go anywhere. Because I don’t know what they want in Hometown at the Lincoln Street park; only those residents do.”

He added that he’s hopeful that someone will step up to the plate to help oversee a disc golf course at Ryan Park.

“I wrote a grant for that and we have a $100,000 grant coming in,” he said. “We are looking for someone to finalize everything in that park. We also got a grant for the pickleball and basketball court and handicapped parking there. We are looking for people to get involved.”