Efforts to add a decorative lighting
feature to the Winamac Town Park’s swinging bridge will be able to
move ahead. On Thursday, the town’s park board learned more about the
various options from Mike Brubaker with Associated Controls + Design
and John Ford with Carl Stahl Architektur.
A presentation on a proposed lighting
feature for the Winamac Town Park’s swinging bridge will be given
during tonight’s park board meeting. A representative from Associated
Controls + Design of Indianapolis is scheduled to discuss some of the
possibilities. Local residents have been spearheading the effort, to
commemorate the Memorial Bridge’s centennial in 2023.
The Winamac Park Board is planning for
a couple events at the end of April. Last week, board members agreed
to let Kingdom Kids daycare facility host a color run fundraiser at
the Town Park on the morning of Saturday, April 27.
After years of removing dying ash trees from the Winamac Town Park, park officials are now beginning to look into replacing them.
Park Manager Dave DeLorenzo brought the issue to the park board Thursday.
He estimated that 90 to 95 trees have been lost to the emerald ash borer, although there are some that remain. He asked the park board about working with the Tree Committee to gradually plant a variety of new trees over the next few years.
The Winamac Park Board welcomed its newest member Thursday. Steve Miller took his seat on the board, replacing Courtney Poor. Meanwhile, Chris Schramm was chosen to take over Poor’s former position of board president.
The Winamac Park Board will elect a new president tonight. Courtney Poor had served in that role from the board’s inception in 2016 up until his resignation last month. Meanwhile, Steve Miller has been selected by the town council to replace Poor as a board member.
The idea of expanding the green space in Veterans Memorial Park was again brought up during last week’s Winamac Park Board meeting. Fred Zahrt, who helped develop the park as part of the town’s tree committee, said replacing some of the gravel area with grass was part of their original plan.” The plan that I presented . . . included the whole property,” he explained, “and that included a tree or two back here and so forth.”
The Town of Winamac is looking for a new park board member. Courtney Poor is stepping down, after serving as the board’s president since its inception in 2016.
The Winamac Park Department is getting
an equipment upgrade. The park board Thursday approved the purchase
of a new lawnmower from GreenMark Equipment for a cost of $11,230. It
will replace a 2012 mower with nearly 2,000 hours, according to Park
Manager Dave DeLorenzo.
A planned lighting feature for the
Winamac Town Park’s swinging bridge continues to be discussed by the
town’s park board. As of today, project organizers and town officials
have exactly four-and-a-half years to raise hundreds of thousands of
dollars and install the feature in time for the Memorial Bridge’s
centennial.
The Winamac Park Board may soon have a firmer cost estimate for a proposed lighting feature for the Town Park’s Swinging Bridge. “Apparently, someone was up with Mr. [Greg] Henry, came up and saw him and have made another appointment. But they did some measurements on the bridge, as far as the lighting,” Park Board President Courtney Poor told the rest of the board last week. “And so he hopes to have some of that information, hopefully, maybe for the January meeting, as far as just estimates from that company. I had requested they have it by the 15th of January, I think.”
Winamac’s new drinking fountains have been installed. Now, the park board plans to recognize one of the donors. Two decorative drinking fountains were placed in the Town Park: an ADA-compliant fountain along the trail near the basketball courts and one to replace the fountain between the swinging bridge and the restrooms. The park board shared the cost of a third drinking fountain for Rinehart Park with the town’s Lion’s Club.
Tree removal continues in the Winamac Town Park, but some new ones are also being planted. Practical Tree Service has completed the removal of 15 trees according to the town’s specifications, according to Park Manager Dave DeLorenzo. He told the town’s park board last week that he also plans to remove some smaller ash trees himself, and he’s already cut one down by the volleyball courts.
A Winamac Park Board member is voicing his frustration after someone apparently vandalized the new restrooms along the Winamac Parkway. “I went in there a few weeks ago to look and there was trash everywhere in there, and people went to the bathroom and plugged it up,” Chris Schramm told the rest of the park board last week. “I assume kids are doing that. I mean, it looked terrible.”
Efforts to upgrade Winamac’s tennis and pickleball facility have come to a standstill. Back in July, the town’s park board approved a $7,000 quote from Leslie Coatings to resurface the Town Park’s tennis court, but stripe it for both tennis and two side-by-side pickleball courts.
The Winamac Park Board’s application for grant funding for Town Park upgrades appears to have gotten state approval. The town hasn’t officially received an award letter, but DNR officials told Park Board Secretary Kim Burke that the application is on the state-approved list.
The Winamac Park Board is expected to get an update tonight on its application for grant funds for Town Park upgrades. The park board has applied for a Land and Water Conservation Fund matching grant to help pay for the replacement of the park’s main restrooms and get new equipment for the toddler playground. The application also contained various smaller items, including a permanent cornhole court, frisbee golf equipment, new basketball backboards, and a new bench.
A broken toilet that’s been a point of contention between the Winamac Park Board and the Eastern Pulaski Community School Corporation has been repaired, thanks to a school custodian. That’s what Park Manager Dave DeLorenzo told the park board last Thursday. “I received a phone call last night, in the evening, from Steve Lawson, who is a maintenance person at the school,” DeLorenzo said. “He, on his own time, went and repaired the toilet in the bathrooms up at the ball diamonds that the school was unwilling to address, and he decided that he would take care of that on his own.”
The Winamac Park Board has decided not to contract out the mowing of the Town Park, but may use some extra part-time help on an as-needed basis. Park Manager Dave DeLorenzo told board members last week that he’s been able to get some help from other town departments, and when that’s not available, he can get someone to help him part-time. “I know that I have the ability to make a phone call and get a little part-time help,” he said. “I mean a day here or a day there. I’m not going to abuse that, at all.”