Alice Pickering
Wyoming Area ReporterOn the east side of Wyoming Saturday, adults and kids met to party about a park. The occasion was the ground breaking ceremony for Goodview Park.
Work crews have recently removed dead trees from a border of mature ash and red oak. Piles of wood chips and sections of drain pipe were stacked along the north side of what-will-be the parking lot, south of soccer fields.
Beth Neeck, Wyoming Park Board chair, announced ìthe first step in construction of our largest and most comprehensive park facility.î
In her remarks, Neeck spoke of Fedje Fields, a four-acre plot dedicated to the city in 1974. Directly south is Thurnbeck Park, an 11-acre section that was dedicated in 1989. The ground breaking ceremony joins the sections as a new 15-acre Goodview Park.
A sketch of the park layout was propped up on the tracks of a caterpillar. The park is laid out on a north-south axis, with Goodview Ave. forming its east border.
The first improvements will be to the north end of the park where two soccer fields will be located, both parallel to Goodview Ave.
Work can now officially begin. Workers will grade and pitch the soccer fields, install a sprinkler system and seed the fields.
Peterson Landscaping will complete this part of the project. A well for irrigation is also part of Phase I of the park development. McCollough Well Drilling was awarded the bid to drill the well.
Jennifer Hegstad, park board co-chair, and commission members Sheldon Anderson, Jerry Headley and Ken Meyers attended the ground breaking.
Bob Beynon, a Wyoming Township Park Board member, also attended. The Goodview Park project is a joint venture of the city of Wyoming and Wyoming Township.
Others who helped break ground were Wyoming Mayor Vern Haag, CM Ted Phillips, and Terrie Clark, Forest Lake Soccer Association member. Dave Jobe, Bob Petersen and Dan Kieger of the Forest Lake Area Athletic Association also participated. Neeckís three children and a friend watched.
The estimated cost of the development project was originally estimated at $135,000, but is anticipated to come in substantially below this amount. A DNR grant, accumulated park funds and contributions by Wyoming Township will pay for the project.
Haag thanked Neeck, Hegstad and others on the park board for ìspearheading the effortî to get the development to this point and the citizen effort.
He praised their persistence in planning and efforts in securing a grant to pay for part of the project.
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