Neighbors Pitch In to Build New Park

Quito Park is a true neighborhood park. The east Camarillo residents who live around the five-acre park banded together five years ago to help build a place they can finally call their own.

“There wasn’t much money available, so the neighbors went out and did a lot of the work themselves,” said John Williamson, general manager of the Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District. “So it’s really a neighborhood park because the whole neighborhood was involved in putting it together.”

Dedication of the park on Quito Court at Calle Dia will be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The park district acquired the property in 1989, but budget crunches stopped officials from talking to residents about developing their park until 1992, when they set aside $100,000 to build Quito Park.

When Carol Schau and Canterbury realized that the park district needed more money to create the kind of park residents requested--with volleyball court, play equipment, picnic tables and barbecue pits--they rallied neighbors to assist the park district.

“The closest park to the neighborhood was Heritage Park, and the kids would have to cross Upland Road to get there--a really busy road,” Schau said. “And with all the budget crunches going on, we just decided to do fund-raising and community work to help get it built.”

They did everything from getting the grading and architectural services donated to arranging for the concrete, lighting, sprinkler system and trees to be put in at cost. They even picked out playground equipment, and raised about $1,000 at two neighborhood garage sales in the park.