Henderson opens 70th park in honor of late director

Henderson authorities and the family of Dundee Jones collected to cut the ceremonial ribbon for Dundee Jones Park on Wednesday, May 3, 2023. (Mark Credico/Las Vegas Review-Journal)The Burkholder Park baseball fields in Henderson were formally called the Dundee Jones Baseball Complex in 2017. (The Jones family)Parks and Recreation Director Shari Ferguson offers a speech next to Mayor Michelle Romero, Councilman Dan Stewart, Councilwoman Carrie Cox and Councilman Dan Shaw at Dundee Jones Park on Wednesday, May 3, 2023.
Henderson officially opened its 70th city park on Wednesday, which was called in honor of the city's first parks and entertainment director.

Dundee Jones Park is located beside the intersection of Jeffreys Street and Horizon Ridge Parkway, just southeast of St. Rose Dominican Hospital.

The park is called after the first director of Henderson's Parks and Recreation, Dundee Jones, who died of COVID-19 in 2021. This isn't the very first Henderson park residential or commercial property to honor Jones; the Burkholder ball park were named the Dundee Jones Baseball Complex in 2017.

The brand-new Dundee Jones Park features a workout course, lawn volley ball courts, strolling tracks, two play grounds and a large pet park.

In honor of Jones' preferred pastime, a big mural on the wall of the park's bathroom features a shape catching a big green and red fish while fly fishing at sundown. Art work of the fish being caught likewise serves as a logo in numerous other locations of the park.

Shari Ferguson, Henderson's parks and recreation director, called Jones a "visionary" when it concerned parks in the city.

When Jones started with the department in 1973, the city just had two parks, according to Ferguson. When he left the position in 1997, it had 24 parks.

After his retirement, Jones relied on advocacy, joining such organizations as the Nevada Recreation and Park Society and Henderson's Parks and Recreation Board.

" He had such a vision for what parks must look like, providing access to parks to everyone, making them readily available to the neighborhood," Ferguson said about Jones. "That's what actually began this whole motion for upper Henderson to have parks.".

Jones' other half, Sally Jones, said that guaranteeing that more parks were developed was "incredibly crucial" to her husband, which he would take pride in the city's parks now.

" I think he is up there watching through his fishing hole," she said. "And he's enjoying all this therefore proud.".

Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Instagram @writermark2.