The city of Guadalupe will celebrate the reopening of Le Roy Park, 1 p.m. Sunday June 12. The event will mark the completion of phase 1 of the Le Roy Park and community center renovation. The project was started in 2018.

With new playground equipment, new barbecue areas, and new landscaping, the park is ready for the community to get back their park.
  
The celebrations will include remarks from Mayor Ariston Julian, county Supervisors Joan Hartmann and Steve Lavagnino, and representatives from State Sen. Monique Limón and U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, followed by a ribbon cutting. A color guard will raise the flags at the park.

There will be performances by local band Los Compas de Guadalupe, and by Folklorico and Aztec Dancers. The Knights of Columbus will provide a free community barbecue.

The city thanks Central Coast Community Energy and Community Health Centers of the Central Coast for their sponsorship of the celebration.

In October 2018 Guadalupe was awarded a $4.5 million Community Development Block Grant from the state’s Housing and Community Development department of which $4.1 million was set aside for the renovation of LeRoy Park and Community Center.

The design process started Nov. 11, 2018 with a community-wide meeting to discuss what the community wanted to see at LeRoy Park and was followed by 13 Amigos del LeRoy Park (Community Stakeholders) meetings where the project design was refined, taking into consideration the suggestions collected in November 2018 and the budget of the project.

In 2020, the city received an additional award for $900,000 which allowed the community center portion of the project to be fully funded. While this helped ensure the community center would be fully renovated, the approximately three years from the application date resulted in the construction costs increased.

To address the issue, the city reduced/limited the park features to available funds. Los Amigos de Guadalupe helped the city secure statewide park funds and raised $500,000 in a capital campaign. More features were added to the construction contract, which was allowed due to contractor to bid for both funded and unfunded project features.

The remaining designed features will be completed with this additional $1.7 million, thanks to the work the support of Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Carbajal.