Upgrades to Underwood Park on Falmouth’s Route 88 were officially completed Wednesday afternoon. Standing in front of several new playground structures, five children helped Falmouth council Chair Bryce Hach use large scissors cut the ribbon opening the park.

The park — which for decades consisted of one play structure — now has swings, picnic tables with a gazebo, benches, a rope climbing wall and another play structure for younger children.

Kate Hamill lives within walking distance of the park with her three young children. While they have used the park weekly for many years, the additional play structures have brought them there more. Hamill said the addition of the play structure for younger children and a baby swing have opened up more of the park for her two youngest children, who are 3 years and 10 months old.

“We’re more motivated to use it since the transformation,” said Hamill.

The project has been a budget item in the capital improvement plan for almost 20 years but kept getting deferred for more urgent projects, said Director of Parks and Community Programs Lucky D’Ascanio. The initiative gained momentum in January 2023, when the town held a public forum at a neighboring property about what the community would like to see at the park and the adjacent “Marion Brown” property that was acquired by the town. A second public forum was held in March, with approximately 100 people attending the forums in all.

Based on public feedback, Aceto Landscape Architects created a site masterplan that was presented to the Parks and Community Programs Advisory Committee and Town Council in spring and summer of 2023.

Following workshops and plan revisions that fall, the Town Council approved the plan in January 2024, dividing the cost between two fiscal years, and improvements began that winter starting with tree removal and parking lot improvements. The additional play structures were added last fall and the picnic area was installed this spring. The town paid $106,000 for the improvements in fiscal year 2024 and $129,000 in fiscal year 2025.

“We were able to do exactly what I envisioned 20 years ago,” said D’Ascanio.

“Every day when I drive by here there are people in the park, and there’s kids on the playground,” she said.

Compared to Underwood Park, other Falmouth parks with play structure are smaller and more limited in space. Parks and Community Programs is working to create a parks improvement plan for other parks as well, said D’Ascanio, that would slowly add enhancements such as benches and potentially more play equipment through the capital improvements.

Parks and Community Programs also plans to add a 1-mile loop of accessible trail through the woods of Underwood Park, said Assistant Town Manager Maggie Edson. It is still seeking grant funding for that project, she said.

Colleen Kavanagh has recreated at Underwood Park with her two children, 4 and 6, every week since they moved to the neighborhood over four years ago.

“As our kids have grown, there is now more from them to do,” she said of the improvements.

The pavilion extends their use of the park, as they can break for a snack or lunch and a rest in the shade, said Kavanagh.

“The swings are most exciting for them,” she said.