While many city parks will get upgrades throughout the spring, substantial work will get under way later this month at Silver Crest Park.

The asphalt basketball court will receive significant attention. Crews will even out low spots in the court so it becomes a level surface, and a fine layer of coating will be placed atop the court so it has a consistent appearance. In addition, existing posts for a tennis net will be removed, and new basketball posts, backboards and nets will be installed. The court’s lines will be repainted to high school regulations.

The basketball court will be closed off during construction, but the rest of the park will remain open.

In addition, crews will remove and get rid of large rocks that are blocking the parking lot for the park and the maintenance entrance off 28th Avenue Southeast. Two new bollards will be installed at the maintenance entrance off 28th Avenue Southeast.

The rocks were installed when the area was still in unincorporated Snohomish County, and were put in to discourage teens from loitering in the park. Now that the area is part of Mill Creek, project manager Marci Chew said that residents who see the park again becoming a haven for loitering should call Mill Creek police.

Rounding out the park upgrades, old fencing will be removed with a new black vinyl chain-link fence, and new fencing will be installed and a park identification sign will be installed.

Silver Crest Park is the only park in the area the city of Mill Creek annexed on Dec. 1, 2005. A few months after the annexation was complete, the city conducted a cleanup event at the park.

The project went to bid Tuesday, March 6. Work is expected to begin at the end of March and continue through May. For more information, call Chew at 425-921-5709.