POSTPONEMENT: Ribbon-cutting event at Waukon City Park rescheduled due to weather

by Lissa Blake

EDITOR'S NOTE: The ribbon-cutting and other celebration events highlighting Waukon City Park enhancements featured in the story below have been postponed until Saturday, October 27 due to the impending severe weather forecast for this area Saturday, October 13. Further details of that postponed event will be shared as they become available.

A celebration this Saturday, October 13 will highlight improvements and acknowledge countless volunteers who have spent more than 2,000 hours expanding and enhancing the Waukon City Park.
According to Waukon City Councilman Joe Cunningham, a park open house will take place Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon. The public will have the opportunity to tour the park, including recent additions made possible by grant funds which were left over from previous projects.
“The original trail is going to be expanded to include a new trail segment on the north side of the south unit which will allow for a loop trail in the area of the oak savanna,” said Cunningham.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Saturday’s festivities begin with a flag raising at the Memory Garden, sponsored by the Waukon Community Pride Committee. At 9:30 a.m., a ribbon cutting for the trails, acknowledgements and thank-yous will take place at the parking lot off Ninth Street SW (near the new Iowa DOT shed along the newly-named 13th Avenue SW)
At 9:45 a.m., the public is invited to walk the trails and park with staff. This walking tour will take one to one and one-half hours and highlight improvements to the park’s trail system. Those wishing to forego the tour and explore the park on their own are welcome to do so. Refreshments are scheduled to be served at the shelter house in the campground area of the park.
At 10:30 a.m., the Healing Hearts Infant Support Group will hold a “Walk to Remember” (see further details of that event in a story on this same page). A Frisbee golf demonstration will take place at 11 a.m., and then the Veterans Memorial Hospital Nursing Council and Healing Hearts Infant Support Group will hold a dedication for the new playground erected earlier this year at 11:30 a.m.

PROJECT FUNDING
Throughout the project, Cunningham worked with Sara Berges, watershed coordinator for the Allamakee County Soil and Water Conservation District (ACSWCD). The park's trail enhancement was made possible through funding from both a Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) grant and a Watershed Improvement Review Board (WIRB) grant.
The $75,000 REAP grant, which the City of Waukon received through the Department of Natural Resources in 2010, has helped fund trail construction, bridges along the trail, fencing around sinkholes, and management of undesired vegetation through cutting, chemical treatment and burning.
“Volunteers hauled 27 tons of biomass out of the park  that was recycled as mulch,” said Berges.
The WIRB grant, administered through the ACSWCD, is helping to improve water quality of Indian Springs Pond through the installation of a sediment basin north of the campground. This funding also helped finance the addition of the rain garden near the park's Thompson Shelter.
REAP funds in the amount of $60,281 have paid for trail development, bridge construction, fencing around the sinkhole and prescribed burns. WIRB grant funds of $8,850 covered educational signs and kiosks throughout the park.
Cunningham said the new trail loop is made possible through savings realized in the original trail funding through REAP (a little less than $15,000 will be carried over to the second phase of the trail development), a $2,000 contribution from a Waukon citizen, and the cooperation of a trail easement granted by Dr. Mark  and Mary Ann Brodahl of the neighboring Brodahl Veterinary Clinic.
He also noted the 25-acre tract of land gifted to the City by Waukon Economic Deveolopment Corporation (WEDC), which represented a monetary value of approximately $300,000 and increased the size of the park by 50 percent.
“We’ve also experienced considerable savings by continuing to utilize the services of the inmates at Luster Heights. The prisoners’ services have been invaluable to the success of the project. Their services helped the first phase of the project come in under budget, which helped us utilize carryover funds from the REAP grant,” said Cunningham.
Improvements already made to the park include a retention basin, rain gardens, rain barrels, pine plantings, forest management, care of the coldwater stream, preservation of  the park’s springs, tree identification, sinkhole kiosk and fencing, the oak savanna project, prairie plantings, and conservation education through signage.

COOPERATIVE EFFORT
Cunningham added that it’s the cooperative effort of many organizations that have really made the project a reality. “The Girl Scouts, WEDC, City of Waukon, Waukon Park and Rec Commission, ACSWCD, State of Iowa, Employees of Waukon Park and Rec, Luster Heights prisoners and numerous other volunteers have all contributed,” he said.

WHAT’S NEXT?
Future projects for Waukon City Park include dredging Indian Springs Pond; improving and expanding the campground and adding a new shower/restroom facility; constructing a new shelter house and restroom in the center of the park; doing restoration work on the wooden play area; improving the playground near the “rocket”; installing a trail/sidewalk along 11th Avenue near the pond; new walking paths to connect restrooms, playgrounds and other areas of the park; a long-term forest woodland management plan; and developing a park foundation to allow for ongoing financial support for capital projects.
Cunningham said dates for upcoming volunteer work days will be announced in the near future.
Donations are also being sought for a number of benches for the park, which will run between $400 and $500. Checks can be directed to the Waukon Park Trust Fund and mailed or delivered to the Waukon City Clerk.