On March 29, I was honored to participate in the groundbreaking for Soukup Park and Arena, a new community center that will be built east of Honeygo Boulevard at Joppa Road.  Despite the bad weather, more than 80 people gathered to celebrate not only the start of Perry Hall’s newest park, but also the contributions of Jerry and Pat Soukup, for whom the site is named.

Jerry Soukup helped start the Perry Hall Recreation Council when Dwight Eisenhower was President of the United States.  As I noted in my remarks, he has led this organization for about a quarter of this country’s history.  His late wife was also an instrumental force in the recreation council, which saved more than $1.5 million that will be applied to build this park.

We honor the amazing contributions of all these volunteers, and thank those leaders who worked with Baltimore County government most recently to make Soukup Park and Arena a reality, specifically Paul Amirault and Bill Paulshock.

This is one of five parks that are actively being developed in the Fifth District.   We are making progress preserving and improving the open space that our communities need.