HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — James Crawford Park on Melody Road in Huntsville serves several neighborhoods near Alabama A&M University. 

A new playground was installed at the park earlier this year and now the Huntsville City Council has authorized a contract for more refurbishments.

“It’s a heavily used park. It’s close to Alabama A&M. It’s got a very active neighborhood association, so they’re well engaged. It gets a lot of use so we felt like this would be a good use of resources for that area,” Huntsville Parks and Recreation Director James Gossett says.

With improvements complete on the west side of the park, a rehab of the east side is just beginning. These upgrades will include sidewalk improvements, a new pavilion, and a rebuild of the basketball court.

“Our parks are heavily used. We’re not going to tell everyone that they’re perfect every time you walk out there because they’re not…but we certainly work to keep them up,” added Gossett. 

The park was named after James Crawford in 2001. Crawford played football at Alabama A&M and is a member of the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame.

Since then, Gossett says there’s been some off-and-on maintenance work over the years.

“There’s been some upgrades to the pavilion bathrooms that are there currently, not the new ones we’ll be adding. There’s been some work done over the years – new sidewalks added, picnic tables, painting of the building…just general maintenance items primarily though,” stated Gossett.

Gossett tells News 19 the hope is to have the work finished in a year.