This week, City of Bradenton officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new park in Bradenton and dedicated and named the park for local residents, business owners and philanthropists John and Rebecca Neal. The new park, previously a blighted parcel with dilapidated old homes on it, sits across the street from Ballard Elementary School in Bradenton on Wares Creek at Ninth Avenue West and Ballard Park Drive. In 2011, a bank planned to sell several old homes on the land in foreclosure. Officials asked the Neals to quickly intervene and purchase the property for future better use. One year later, the Neals sold the parcel to the city for their cost, with a donation value of over $1 million. Now a beautified passive recreation area, the John and Rebecca Neal Park is a welcoming waterfront parcel of open space with a kayak launch, future fishing pier and a community garden with 49 individual plots and a tool shed. Only one of the seven land parcels, the largest, sold to the city will be home to the new park. The other parcels will most likely be used for future housing.

City of Bradenton