CUMBERLAND — Lisa Olinger gazed at a Muscovy duck resting on the bank of a pond and recalled pushing a baby stroller in Constitution Park to watch waterbirds and other wildlife.
“When my girls were little we we would always come to the park on pretty days like this,” she said and added the park’s duck pond was a favorite attraction.
Olinger and her daughter Bethany, 21, of Cumberland, were at the park Monday for a ceremony to recognize recent renovations around the duck pond.
“It’s wonderful,” Lisa Olinger said. “I love that they’re updating the park. It warms my heart.”
Roughly 20 people and five ducks were at the event.
Cumberland Administrator Jeff Silka talked of the needed improvements to the pond area that was “very dire” before updates, including a walking path around the pond, were added.
Cumberland Director of Parks & Recreation Ryan Mackey said the park’s pond area had “room for improvement for sure.”
Additional updates at the park include new signs and stump removal, he said.
Constitution Park is “a gem,” Mackey said.
He announced the new name, chosen via online contest, of the resident Muscovy.
“Mr. Bradduck Waddles,” Mackey said.
Cumberland Mayor Ray Morriss said city staffers did a “wonderful job” on the pond project.
Community groups also helped with the renovation.
Fort Hill High School Technology Education Teacher Tim Morral led three classes of roughly 35 students who built a new duck house that’s installed near the pond.
“They really enjoyed it,” he said of the kids.
In April, Cumberland resident Sue Rudd talked of a new group she had formed, Friends of Constitution Park, to generate ways to improve the park.
On Monday, she said the park’s latest updates are “just beautiful.”
“I love it,” Rudd said.
Mary Ann Pannone, also of Cumberland, talked of the park as a special place to make family memories.
“We bring our grandkids up a lot,” she said. “We come out year round.”
Cumberland residents Donna Davis and Robert Clites said they admire the duck pond area.
“They did a nice job,” Davis said of the renovation.
Clites carefully watched the water in the pond and talked of a decades-old memory.
“I dropped some goldfish in here about 20 years ago,” he said and added he believes the fish, much larger now, have thrived in the pond.
Clites, a wildlife photographer, plans to come back and visit the pond now that it’s been renovated.
The improvements are “long overdue,” he said.
Cumberland City Council members Eugene Frazier, Richard “Rock” Cioni, and Laurie Marchini were also at the event.