**New landscaping at Furman Park. (Photo by Eric Pierce)**

DOWNEY — After months of work, the parks portion of Measure S should be complete in about a week.

It’s been a long process of closures and upgrades to the city’s parks, thanks to Measure S – a half cent sales tax increase for the purpose of public safety and infrastructure.

Passed by voters in 2016, it laid a heavy burden of work to be done in a limited amount of time; the clock expiring at the end of this year.

According to Assistant City Manager John Oskoui, things are looking “very good.”

“We call it a ‘final stretch,’ and usually when you say ‘final stretch’ it means you started the process a long time ago,” said Oskoui. “But when you really think about it, the entire [Measure S] effort, the program itself… we had to do things in less than two years.”

“When we got into it, we knew we had to do it because the proceeds that we got with the bond, the language was specific that in three years, ‘you had to have substantial completion of your projects’ construction.’”

Design work – which can usually take to upwards of a year – was completed in around four to six months.

“We jammed it,” said Oskoui.

Parks were closed and worked on in phased packages, in a way that Oskoui says stretched the city’s dollars as much as possible and provided the least amount of discomfort to residents as possible.

“If I remember correctly, when we did the master plan, it identified over $80 million worth of work to be done,” said Oskoui. “The truth is, you assess your needs, but there is not ever enough financing available for all of your needs. So, what do you do? You carve out the most important things that you want to achieve that is going to give you the most for your buck that you spend.”

“We sat down with our Parks and Recreation Department, and said, ‘Look, I don’t know your programs; you do. You know your user groups. You tell me what sequence do we have to follow; which parks can close at the same time, which ones we can’t, and which ones are we going to start with.’”

Ultimately, there were three phases beginning with Apollo and Dennis the Menace Parks, and finalizing with Furman and Discovery Parks.

Now, the final park project – Wilderness Park - is scheduled to be completed by the second week in August, however will remain closed until November when work on the ponds is finished.

The Wilderness ponds is funded through funds from the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, and is therefore separate from Measure S.

Overall, around $24 million has been put into Downey’s parks.

While Coronavirus has somewhat hindered accessibility to some park features, many of the new fields, facilities, and athletic courts are now open for public use.

Notably, Oskoui has voiced pride in the revitalization of Golden Park.

“You take a step back and you take a look at that entire park, and you think, ‘Man, this is a gorgeous park,’” said Oskoui. “It looks plush, green, with lovely trees. The community center was taken care of…we put some nice lighting so if people want to take a stroll at night, they can do that. The entire irrigation system was taken care of; everything that is underground and people can’t see has been taken care of.”

“The parking lot was in horrible shape; we reconstructed the entire parking lot. The basketball courts were resurfaced, the play areas were redone…when you look at it in totality, there was a lot of work that was being done.”

Oskoui says that public feedback has seemed “very positive” so far.

“There are always things that folks may think that you’ve done differently,” said Oskoui. “But we have not received anything but positive feedback from our folks. Look at Furman, it’s a beautiful park; it’s a gorgeous park now.”

“Honestly, I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’m proud of the program we ran and we are continuing to until the finish line. I think we have done a pretty good job, and it’s evident by the investment we have done; how much investment has actually gone into construction. That’s a good marker. When you can see, find out from every dollar how much you stretched out to actually do the work that people are going to enjoy for many years to come.”

Historic renovations of Downey parks nearly complete