Riverton opens new park, trail

RIVERTON — Residents of the new Monarch Meadows development in Riverton now have one more thing they can enjoy about living in the development: the opening of a new community park.

City officials recently celebrated the grand opening of the Monarch Meadows Community Park and trail system, which is connected to the development. The 20-acre park, located at about 13600 S. 4800 West features a large pavilion, playground equipment, a walking trail and enough area for a couple soccer fields, something the city is sorely in need of, said Paul Turpin, a soccer coach who lives in the Monarch Meadows development.

Although the park opened this year, the teams were unable to play on it yet because the grass came from seed instead of sod, so it needs to grow for another year before it's strong enough.

"It will be nice to have another park to play in," Turpin said.

Part of the problem has been a lack of a central game-playing location.

"We play (games) in South Jordan, Riverton and Herriman at parks scattered all over the place. We don't have one single place we can play our games," said Eric Wells, Utah Soccer Alliance President.

When the park was constructed, the Utah Soccer Alliance paid $10,000 to put conduit in the ground all the way around it, which will eventually allow the park to be lighted. However, before that can happen, the Alliance must raise the additional $80,000-90,000 it will cost to install the lights.

The $10,000 that paid for the conduit came from the fees the organization collects from participants when they sign up for the program. Wells said they normally save that money for equipment but scrimped over the last couple years to save for the conduit.

Wells has been happy with how smoothly he has been able to work with the city.

"Everybody is thrilled to death to have a soccer park we can play and practice at," he said. "We really appreciate the city's efforts to make sure we have places to play and have grass to play on because grass is premium anymore."

The trail system around the soccer field is one-third of a mile. Another trail branches off, goes around the edge of the development and snakes through it, in a westward direction, for about 1.15 miles before it hooks into Herriman city's trail system and ends at the main park at about 2.25 miles.

Sheril Garn, Riverton recreation and community events director, said residents have been excited about another community park.