Washington Riverfront Park in Ravenswood adds free Wi-Fi

RAVENSWOOD — Guests of the Washington Riverfront Park in Ravenswood will now have access to free Wi-Fi.

Adding the Wi-Fi amenity at the park has been on the minds of Ravenswood officials and according to board of parks and recreation superintendent Katrena Ramsey, it was decided now would be a good time to pursue it with so many kids doing remote learning.

“With so many kids going to computers during COVID, it exposed the need for a public hotspot,” she said.

Another hope is that people traveling through the area will stop to visit the park and use the internet access.

The project was funded by the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation and Coplin Clinic.

PACF gave a $4,000 grant towards the project; between the two donors, Ramsey said the City of Ravenswood only had to contribute about $1,500.

Funds from the PACF derived from a special Fund for Ravenswood which formed in 2019 “specifically to build resources dedicated to Ravenswood and to support projects that benefit the broad community needs of the Ravenswood area,” according to a press release from the foundation.

The Wi-Fi will not only benefit visitors, it will help with security as surveillance cameras can be viewed remotely.

“It’s also going to provide museum support because we need to be able to save things to the cloud when we do inventory,” Ramsey said. “(We will also) use it for researching so people can use ancestry.com and to do some work on their genealogy.”

For vendors who come to the area for festivals or events, the internet access will allow them to use methods of online payments.

“The coverage is pretty extensive in our park, it’s very fast. You can easily watch YouTube or FaceTime. We are determined to keep it funded, up and running,” Ramsey said.

Parents need not worry about their kids streaming something inappropriate on the park’s Wi-Fi; Ramsey said all adult websites are blocked and an IT worker monitors the use.

“We also have limitations on how much of the data you can pull. We have protections set up against malicious use,” she said.

Although the access has only been available for a couple of days, Ramsey said over 100 people have used it.

“Hopefully it’s beneficial to people who live in Ravenswood, people who use our park and the people who travel to Ravenswood,” Ramsey said.

Candice Black can be reached at cblack@newsandsentinel.com.