SOUTH HADLEY — One of South Hadley’s most popular parks will undergo a second round of renovations later this year thanks to a $500,000 state grant the town received last month.

The town intends to use the money to expand and upgrade Buttery Brook Park, a recreation area off Willimansett Street established in 1980 that has grown in popularity since the first round of renovations were completed about a decade ago. The upcoming work will include construction of accessible walking trails, installation of new playground equipment and additional pickleball courts, a rehabilitation of the basketball court and the addition of a small disc golf course.

As a requirement for the Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities (PARC) grant, the work will also incorporate native vegetation and informational signs on pollution hazards and the old dam head.

The design of the renovations is planned for completion by May, with bids going out in June and the work beginning in July. The grant money must be used by June of 2025.

At the previous Town Meeting, residents approved $710,000 for Buttery Brook Park renovations under the condition that South Hadley receive the grant and reimburse the money. The half million dollars will fund the second phase of renovations, the first of which took place a decade ago.

“We had a limited budget at the time, so there was a lot of stuff we had left out and wanted to do in the future. In that time, the park had gotten incredibly popular,” Recreation Director Andrew Rogers said.

Rodgers said the park attracted 100,000 visitors last year, although he thinks many of those visitors are residents who frequent the park. Between the increased usage of the playground, the pickleball tournaments, the outdoor circus, cruise nights and farmers’ market, South Hadley residents and neighboring townsfolk flock to the park for recreation and events.

Rodgers said this round of renovations both finishes the last list of improvements and adds highly demanded items like four new pickleball courts. The town planned to create more walking paths in the last round of renovations but ran out of money. This left the back half of the park underdeveloped, an issue Rodgers hopes to remedy.

“We want to develop an accessible walking trail so that all people of all ages and abilities can access the park,” Rodgers added. “The back half (of the park) is not utilized in a good way, so we want to make that connected to park.”

The focus on inclusion and popularity of the playground inspired its expansion. The space itself will be larger and include accessible playground equipment for people with physical disabilities, such as a wheelchair swing.

Another major focus of the grant is on environmental protection and awareness. That means that the work at Buttery Brook will include the addition of signs near the stream to explain its proximity to a landfill. Rodgers said people are not allowed to swim in the brook due to pollution, and the new signs will educate residents on why there are swimming restrictions.

“One thing we will concentrate on is the dam head that goes back to the turn of the century. There used to be a reservoir that the brook ran into,” he said. “We will put up some better signage on the history of that so people know what that is.”

At the Dec. 19 Select Board meeting, Town Administrator Lisa Wong requested to create a committee to manage the funds and hire a design firm. The committee will expand from the last time the park underwent renovations and would include three members from the Recreation Commission, three members from Friends of Buttery Brook, one member from the Parks Commission, an additional member from the Recreation Department and a member from the Committee of Disabilities. The Select Board approved her request, handing off the responsibility of appointing committee members to Wong.

“I like the idea of expanding, for sure. The more people involved in it, the better project we will have,” Select Board Member Jeff Cyr said.

Wong added that this round of renovations is less involved and less expensive than the first round because the improvements do not include structures. However, town officials can dip into the grant money if the price of construction rises.

Buttery Brook Park was created in 1980 by South Hadley Parks Superintendent Joseph Taylor. The park is nestled in the old Buttery Brook watershed, a remnant of which still exists on the hill overlooking the path of the brook as it winds its way through the park’s large, open field below the pine grove.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.