PORT HUENEME : Play Area Planned for Gazebo Site

Just as it has for more than two decades, a hexagonal wood-roofed gazebo sits atop a grassy mound in Port Hueneme’s four-acre Bolker Park. The once-popular stage for community events is now in disrepair and graffiti markings scar its sides.

The only swing set in the park is broken.

If all goes as planned, come August the gazebo will be demolished to make way for a $47,000 children’s play area--with slides, swings, a jungle gym, sand and other amenities for children.

“The gazebo is an eyesore, it’s falling apart, it’s in disrepair and it’s even a target for graffiti,” said Brady Cherry, Port Hueneme’s director of recreation and community services.

Lezlie Massey and her 1-year-old son, Nikolaus, live in one of several housing complexes at the edge of the park. She said she is looking forward to a play area.

“There’s a lot of little kids in these condominiums and all they have is the swings,” she said. “It would really be used.”

Funding for the play area is coming from developer fees acquired from the construction of a 300-unit apartment complex at the Naval Construction Battalion Center.

The play area is the first stage of an overall Bolker Park improvement project. Cherry said there are plans to improve park lighting and create an exercise area. He said an additional $65,000 will be needed to complete the renovations.

F. Bolker Milder, brother of park developer Joseph Bolker, remembers fondly the gazebo’s early days, when it was used for live entertainment.

“They used to have plays there, I remember we saw ‘Bell, Book and Candle’ one evening,” Milder said. “People would sit around and bring their blankets.”