Bayliss Harsh said she felt sick when she heard the shelter at Clinton Park, 901 W. Fifth St., was going to be torn down. After growing up in Lawrence and living near the park for four years, she had fond memories of it.

“In the late ’70s I went to a wedding there,” she said.

But she likes its replacement.

“Now, it’s more wonderful, still beautiful and even better with a deck,” Harsh said of the new shelter.

The Pinckney Neighborhood Association had a rededication ceremony Friday evening to celebrate the $230,000 in renovations recently completed at the park. The association aided the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department in a design and layout for the revamp that began in October.

Parks and recreation leaders and city commissioners, including Mayor Sue Hack, attended.

“I’m proud as part of the commission to support the work of parks and recreation,” Hack said. “I know this city values its parks.”

Steve Braswell, president of the neighborhood association, said they city had to tear down the original shelter because of structural damage.

Renovations also included a new restroom facility, sidewalks and landscaped areas.

A neighborhood band called Euphoria String Band played on the new deck that overlooks one of the oldest parks in the city as community members and others munched on popcorn.

In view was an empty cement pad where the old shelter sat atop a mound of rocks.

The Pinckney neighborhood includes about 1,700 households within the borders of Iowa Street-McDonald Drive on the west, Sixth Street on the south, Interstate 70 on the north and the Kansas River on the east.