{"id":193625,"date":"2026-05-15T20:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/193625\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T20:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T20:12:10","slug":"oakbrook-recreation-park-opens-in-reading-with-upgraded-baseball-field-basketball-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/193625\/","title":{"rendered":"Oakbrook Recreation Park opens in Reading with upgraded baseball field, basketball court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Reading Housing Authority officially opened Oakbrook Recreation Park this week, introducing new outdoor recreation amenities for residents of Oakbrook Homes and the surrounding community.<\/p>\n<p>The park, located as part of the Oakbrook Center for Community Services, featured a newly modernized baseball field with dugouts, equipment storage, outfield and foul-line fencing, foul poles, an electronic scoreboard, an announcer\u2019s booth, and accessible spectator seating.<\/p>\n<p>Officials also highlighted upgrades to the park\u2019s resurfaced basketball court, which included new bleachers intended to support future clinics and leagues.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_0522.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1366\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-58627\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Additional improvements throughout the park included mature trees, a walking path, benches, and a picnic grove equipped with three eight-seat picnic tables and charcoal grills. A concession stand was also expected to open in the coming weeks, allowing event organizers to rent the space for serving visitors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are incredibly grateful to our partners at the City of Reading,\u201d said Stacey Keppen, president and CEO of the Reading Housing Authority. \u201cWithout their support, this project would have been delayed while additional funding was pursued through other channels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>RHA officials said the final phase of the recreation park remained on schedule for completion in fall 2026, when a larger grand opening celebration is expected to take place. Planned additions included a new playground, a pavilion, and restroom facilities.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/IMG_0519.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1366\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-58625\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>According to RHA, part of the future playground area will be dedicated to the Patton Avenue Learning Center during operating hours, allowing the center to expand services for children in the community.<\/p>\n<p>The project\u2019s final phase was being supported through funding assistance from Chrissy Houlahan.<\/p>\n<p>RHA additionally encouraged local agencies and organizations to explore opportunities to provide services and programming at the Oakbrook Center for Community Services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reading Housing Authority officially opened Oakbrook Recreation Park this week, introducing new outdoor recreation amenities for residents&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-193625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}