Finally, the General Santos Park, formerly known as the Carlos P. Garcia Park across the City Hall building will be improved and renovated starting this month, according to Mayor Jun Acharon.

This was after the winning bidder to the P22.5 million project was announced by the Bids and Awards Committee, the Dellosa Design Build Services, which incidentally is a supporter of the 2nd Mindanao Bloggers Summit.  Yipeee!!!!!

The announcement billboard of the Gen. Santos Park rehabilitation

The project will include the construction of a parking area inside the 4.8 hectare tree-filled plaza, cobbled walks, plant boxes, new lamp posts and landscaped promenades for the whole family, among others.

This is a far cry from the plaza of my youth when it was just a wide grass field where my brother and I used to catch grasshoppers with our bare hands and jump over the newly planted tree saplings.  Back then, there were no trees to provide shade to park-goers, no benches, no plant boxes, no nothing… and yet, they bring back a lot of good memories.

And so, with this welcome development, I immediately took shots of the plaza (as it is commonly called here) knowing that these images will soon be just be part of GenSan’s history.

Click on these pictures for a larger view.