KINGSTON — After a four-month makeover, Kingston’s Village Green Park is ready for play.

Since Navy housing was demolished on the site in September 2008, the 3.6-acre parcel had been left as a moonscape, bounded by a wall of overgrown bushes. But beginning this spring, a volunteer effort has turned gray to green, replacing the rubble with an expanse of grass.

“The contrast is just astonishing,” said Bobbie Moore, executive director of the Village Green Foundation, who helped spearhead the project.

On Thursday evening, a large crowd of Kingston residents celebrated the grand opening of Village Green Park with a ribbon cutting, refreshments and a pie auction to raise money for the foundation.

Moore hopes the event will also create renewed interest in the broader vision for Village Green, which includes the reconstruction of the Kingston Community Center and low-cost senior housing on property north of the new park. Plans for developing the full 14-acre county parcel have evolved since the early 1990s.

“I think it’s been so long in the concept stage, that people had begun to give up hope a little bit,” Moore said.

The county purchased the site of Village Green Park from the Navy in 2006 and used a federal grant to fund the demolition in 2008.

As the space sat idle, the Village Green Foundation began discussing plans for the park with county Parks and Recreation, which had about $500,000 in state grant money set aside for development of the Village Green properties.

The county considered removing the central road from the property and create a new parking area, a plan that would have required extensive regrading. Village Green Foundation pushed for a less expensive option, which would use the central road for both access and parking.

In stepped County Commissioner Steve Bauer, who created an agreement between the foundation and the county. The county would fund the foundation’s plan, if the foundation supplied the volunteers.

“It became great partnership between the county and the community,” Bauer said. “I think they’ve done a great job.”

Work on the park began in early May.

Kingston residents Rick Lanning and Dave Wetter got busy organizing volunteer labor and lining up North End contractors willing to donate services.

“It was great watching them work, they are really masters of their crafts,” Wetter said of the contractors. “But we certainly shouldn’t shortchange the contribution of the volunteers, many of whom were senior citizens.”

Once rubble was cleared away, a rough grading job was done on the fields and 13 truckloads of topsoil were brought in. Volunteers spent grueling hours under the sun connecting irrigation pipes and moving fences. Grass seed was spread in June. The project preserved the mature trees that already dotted the property and the playground, which had been part of the Navy development.

All told, the project used more than 700 work hours from about 70 volunteers and finished with a price tag of roughly $70,000.

Local volunteers will be responsible for maintaining the park and trash cans won’t be provided. All the more reason residents need to be careful to clean up after themselves, Lanning said.

While the county was supportive of the effort, organizers believe Village Green Park wouldn’t be opening so soon, or for so little cost, without the community leading the way. Lanning said the park is a testament to what a proactive community group can accomplish.

“Whether you’re talking about our community or any community, people need to know how to ask for what they want,” Lanning said.

Kingston welcomed Village Green Park to the community Aug. 13 with a celebration and pie auction. See a slideshow below: