Evergreen Park improvements are aired at meeting
March 2, 2012
Photo by Ted Lutz
A community meeting on proposed improvements at Evergreen Park in Kane was held Thursday evening at the Kane Community Center on Fraley Street.
Proposed improvements at Evergreen Park in Kane were discussed Thursday evening at a community meeting at the Kane Community Center on Fraley Street.
About a dozen residents attended the 75-minute meeting. Dick Bly, chairman of the "Friends of Evergreen Park" group, presided.
Kane Borough Council President Howard Kane and Councilmen Harold Hallberg and Dennis Drost represented the borough at the forum.
"I thought it was a good meeting," Bly said. "We want to have a good working relationship with council."
Bly said he expects more Kane residents will attend future meetings to provide their input on park improvements.
The "Friends of Evergreen Park" formed about two years ago when the Kane Borough Council announced plans to demolish the "Enchanted Playland" at the park.
The "Friends" group held several "work bees" to repair the wooden playground, which apparently has been spared.
As the group worked to repair the playground, the volunteers "came up with other ideas for the park," Bly said. He said the "Friends" group is "interested in the entire park," not just the playground.
During the meeting Thursday, Bly outlined a proposed three-year plan for improvements at the park.
The proposals are part of a "wish list."
"Nothing is set in stone," Bly said.
Under the plan, the first-year improvements include:
*Continued maintenance of the "Playland."
*Construction of a concrete walkway on the Birch Street and Park Avenue sides on the park using about $42,000 in federal community-development block grant (CDBG) money. These funds previously were allocated for the demolition of the "Playland" and the installation of traditional playground equipment.
*Construction of a combination gazebo and outdoor theatre. This proposed project calls for using $10,000 in CDBG funds.
*Painting of the fences around the tennis courts and basketball court.
*Planting wildflowers in conjunction with the Kane Garden Club.
*Repair of the bleachers at the T-ball field.
Bly said it would be "ideal" to have a sidewalk around the park. However, Kane and Drost both questioned the need for the proposed perimeter sidewalk.
Kane said the proposed sidewalk "doesn't give access to the center of the park." He suggested constructing a less-expensive limestone path instead of a concrete sidewalk along Birch Street and Park Avenue.
Kane said handicapped persons already are allowed to ride in vehicles on narrow dirt roads to gain access to certain sites in the park. Drost said a better plan would be to add concrete pads to make certain areas of the park more accessible to persons confined to wheelchairs.
Drost said council needs to be "very careful" on the use of CDBG funds because the time is coming when the borough may receive "very little or none." Because the borough's population has fallen below 4,000, Kane now must compete with other municipalities for a piece of the CDBG funds allocated to the county.
In previous years, Kane automatically qualified for its own pot of CDBG money.
Drost also is concerned about the borough's responsibility for maintaining a proposed paved sidewalk along Birch Street and Park Avenue.
See full article by purchasing the March 2 edition of The Kane Republican.
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Comments
Evergreen Park 'improvements'
March 3, 2012 by Karen Gentilman..., 1 year 15 weeks ago
Comment: 111
Re: your recent article concerning Evergreen Park 'Improvements'
I recently read a comment by a young woman who stated that she would love to see ice skating returned to Evergreen Park. It was an excellent suggestion. Ice skating was wonderful, winter fun in the park; and if resumed, would be an activity that would not only give pleasure to many, but would also be non-destructive to the park itself. It would also cost next to nothing.
But. . . a $42,000 sidewalk around the Birch Street and Park Avenue sides? Seriously? Why is my mind throwing back to the Joni Mitchell song "They Paved Paradise?"
Do we really wish to damage more tree root systems, especially on the Birch Street side, given that so many elegant, old trees have already fallen to either wind damage or age? Why? Just so people can walk 'all the way around' the park on a $42,000 dollar ribbon of cement? Is it not the nature of a park to place grass underneath the visitor's feet, and to beckon them to enter into the wonders of nature that lie within?
Since the sad loss of many dozens of trees during the tornado in 1985, and the dozens more that have fallen since, I have seen precious little effort at replanting taking place. Wouldn't the money be better spent on concentrating on the systematic replanting of those fallen trees in an effort to recreate a fuller park canopy? Just think of the number of trees that could be purchased for $42,000.
Another suggestion that would improve the park much more than any cement sidewalk ever could ... how about the Friends of the Park group forming a committee of persons to regularly walk the park grounds and pick up the sad amount of trash that always seems to be lying around lately, especially along the Chestnut Street sidewalk area?
A Gazebo/ Theater? Yet another 'building' in the park? One large gazebo and two large pavilions are not enough?
As for the park's Creative Playground .... shortly after public awareness surfaced about the dangers inherent in the arsenic-laced, pressure-treated wood used to build the Bob Leather's creative playgrounds, many communities have replaced them with newer, safer creative playgrounds.
Even the Leathers' firm, on their website, states that their playgrounds now consist of (arsenic-free) pressure-treated lumber, and even that is used ONLY in their support structures. The remaining 80 percent, the part children actually come into contact with, consists of recycled, plastic wood composite.
The Leathers Creative Playground that sat beside the Ellicottville School in Ellicottvile, N.Y., was torn down several years ago and replaced by one of the newer, composite versions. It looks almost exactly the same as the older version which was dismantled, and now sits in a protected, vacant lot in Great Valley that is considered unsafe and off limits to children.
Evergreen Park is a rare jewel, and was a gift from its designers and the town founders; a perpetual green space designated specifically for the enjoyment of future generations.
With that thought in mind, I would hope that the 'Friends' of Evergreen Park, and also the Kane borough, will think long and hard before paving over any more of our ever beautiful, ever shrinking, Evergreen Park.
~ Karen Gentilman Clopp