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Alabaster held an official ribbon cutting ceremony for Patriots Park on Friday, Aug. 4 after previously opening the park to the public on July 21. (For the Reporter/Neal Wagner)

By NOAH WORTHAM | Staff Writer

ALABASTER – Patriots Park is now open in the city of Alabaster and ready for families to enjoy its pickleball courts, playground and other amenities.

“We really enjoyed having a chance to celebrate the grand opening of Patriots Park with our community,” Public Relations Manager Neal Wagner said. “The park has been open for a few weeks now, and it’s been great to see so many people enjoying it already.”

Alabaster held an official ribbon cutting ceremony for Patriots Park on Friday, Aug. 4 after previously opening the park to the public on July 21.

“We’re so excited to have Patriots Park open here in Ward Three and Ward Two,” Councilmember Stacy Rakestraw said. “It has been exciting to see how the community has been coming out here, even before it opened.”

The city originally planned a large public event for the grand opening with bounce houses, food trucks and a Movie in the Park showing, however, rainfall the previous night caused the city to postpone the celebration for a later date.

“We hope our residents continue to enjoy this awesome park, and we will announce a new date for food trucks, bounce houses and a movie in the park event soon,” Wagner said.

Patriots Park features a variety of amenities for local residents to enjoy, including a walking trail, basketball and pickleball courts, pavilions, a stage area and a playground.

“We have an incredible playground—that’s the first of its kind in the city,” Rakestraw said. “It has a lot of sensory things for the children to touch, feel and hear. And it has a lot of interactive things that they can do in the playground and just have a good time.”

The park’s stage area will assist with future events the city plans to hold such as Movies in the Park as well as live-music events.

The park has already seen use, with residents enjoying the use of its pickleball and basketball courts.

“It’s just been incredible to see the community come out and play pickleball and basketball and  (to see) everybody work together and help complete strangers get in the game because there’s waiting lines for people to come in and play pickleball,” Rakestraw said.

Alabaster’s Parks and Recreation Director Tim Hamm discussed the importance of the park before the ribbon cutting ceremony.

“As a parks and recreation department, you want to be able to provide for all citizens, all ages in all areas in the city,” he said. “So, this was a big part of that process.”

Mayor Scott Brakefield expressed his appreciation for the park and shared what inspired the city to create Patriots Park.

“It’s just a great amenity for the north end of town,” Brakefield said. “We use citizen feedback to drive what we are able to provide to our citizens and this came back as a need and desire for the north end of town through our parks and needs assessment. We utilize that data often to be able to drive the projects that we’re completing around town.”

Rakestraw expressed her gratitude for the local organizations that helped make the city’s vision of Patriots Park a reality.

“We’re just so thankful for our partnership with Shelby County, with Clements Dean, Avanti Polar Lipids and everyone who helped us get this complete so fast,” she said.

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