NILES — A year has passed since a $4.6 million Waddell Park renovation was completed, and the city’s mayor shared what’s next for the area, with more money for improvements set to come.

Mayor Steven Mientkiewicz expressed gratitude to state Rep. Nick Santucci, R-Niles, for helping the city secure $950,000 in park improvements, allocated from the state’s two-year, $3.7 billion Capital Budget bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine on June 15.

Mientkiewicz explained the funding is split into two areas: general improvements at Waddell Park and outfield turf at Wilder Park.

“With our Waddell Park improvement grant that we received a few years ago, we had turfed the entire infield of Wilder, so it was always our plan to turf the outfield,” Mientkiewicz said. “With this grant funding, we’re going to be able to accomplish that, and we will have a full turf field at Wilder Field.”

Mientkiewicz said the field will accommodate both the high school and some of the youth baseball teams.

Mientkiewicz said Waddell Park’s multi-use play area is also a focus of the money’s use. It will take the former playground’s place.

“We’re going to take that out — everything’s going to be redone, with an artificial turf bocce court, two pickleball courts, and a bankshot court that I believe is an eight-hoop bankshot court,” Mientkiewicz said. “Play mounds, music play, children’s equipment, two permanent outdoor cornhole courts and seating and shade sails and landscaping.”

Mientkiewicz said officials wanted to find a use for the old playground site, and the plan is a “conglomerate” of different recreational features — all encompassed in that square.

“The first phase of it was $2.5 million in federal grant funding, and now this phase is $950,000 in grant funding,” Mientkiewicz said. “It was always our vision to create one park being a main feature for the city, and that’s what we have now in Waddell Park.”

And Waddell Park continues to be both respected and utilized by the public — both residents and visitors, Mientkiewicz said.

“We have eyes, 24/7 on that park — we have an afternoon crew that is focused on Waddell Park, and we have cameras all throughout the park,” Mientkiewicz said. “We also have a program with our police department, where they conduct daily drive-throughs and checks of the park.”

Mientkiewicz said the city is in the process of designing and sending requests for qualification for engineering and consulting services, expressing hopes that the phase will wrap up by the end of July.

Mientkiewicz said the projects will hopefully be bid out by August, with construction beginning at both areas by late summer to early fall.