Fredericksburg renews $1 lease on playground

Fredericksburg just renewed a dollar lease for a local park.

The Fredericksburg City Council has just renewed a lease agreement with the locally-based Mayfield Civic Association to keep the parcels of land that form a public park known as the W.L. Harris Playground on Dixon Street, just south of Route 3.

Fredericksburg has leased the park since 1981 and pays the association $1 per year to lease the property. In return, the association is exempted from city real property taxes. The previous 10-year lease agreement between the city and the association ended in June 2009 but continued to operate as though the lease agreement was still in effect as it was in holdover status.

The new lease took effect on December 2020 and will expire at the end of November 2030. The language stipulates that the city is responsible for the maintenance of the park. The maintenance includes weekly grass cutting, trash collection, porta john rental, ongoing repairs and maintenance, and charges for park utilities. The most recent example of this maintenance agreement in action was when the city paid to have the basketball goals repainted.

While the association schedules park usage, Fredericksburg gets priority for sponsored events.

In early 2020, the association received a grant from the Sunshine Lady Foundation, a North Carolina-based non-profit organization founded in 1996 which was used to install new playground equipment within the park with the help of the Parks, Recreation, and Events Department.

In addition to the playground, the park also contains a lighted basketball court, a lighted picnic pavilion, a small covered stage with lights, and an open grass play space. There is no public restroom in the park, but the city does lease a porta john that is placed within the park year-round.

According to its website, the association “invests in organizations and programs dedicated to providing opportunities for the advancement of education, well being and new life choices for disadvantaged people with special empathy for the working poor and families in crisis.”

Sunshine Lady Foundation Founder Doris Buffet is a resident of Fredericksburg and in 2009, and sister of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, invested in two residences and a short stay respite facility for adults with developmental disabilities. Buffet, 92, passed away in August 2020.