Tag Archives: Reopening

Jackson Park reopening makes quite the ‘splash’

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Wyoming High School band members join area children in celebrating the opening of the splash pad at Jackson Park. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Saturday, June 5, was a sunny, 80-degree day with humidity – the perfect day to open a splash pad, which is exactly what the City of Wyoming did as it officially opened its fourth at Jackson Park.

Before the ceremony, members of the Wyoming High School band, there to help celebrate the reopening of the park, were making plans to jump in the new splash pad as soon as it was open. The minute that City of Wyoming Director of Community Services Rebecca Rynbrandt announced the countdown to start the water, the students were quickly joined by area children on splash pad’s edge for the race on who would get wet first.

“It has been 13 years of planning and fundraising,” Rynbrandt said, adding that coupled with the fact that the park has been closed for about year due to construction, she was not surprised by the excitement of residents to finally be able to enjoy Jackson Park.

“COVID made it clear the importance of our park and recreation usage,” Rynbrandt said. “It is about being outside, connecting with families, making sure we have healthy lifestyles whether it is the joy of being in an environment where nature soothes the soul to being active and physically fit.”

One of the targeted parks on the city’s improvement campaign, the City of Wyoming approved a $1.4 million investment to Jackson Park last year. This allowed for several new features at the park, such as the splash pad and playground equipment, along with playground shelter, parking lot and lighting. The features, especially the splash pad, came from residents who were given the opportunity to provide input on what they wanted to see at the park.

For the official Jackson Park reopening, Rynbrandt was joined by city officials, Kent County Commissioner Dan Burrill, State Representative Tommy Brann, members of the Parks and Recreation Commission and Historical Commission, the Wyoming High School band, residents and, of course, lots of area children.

“This park really needed it,” said longtime Wyoming resident Gene Kurt who is on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission. “They needed to bring the kids back to the park.”

Kurt, whose wife’s family has lived near the park for years, said Jackson Park has a long history. It was known as Lake Alexander, named after one of the first settlers in the area. According to Bill Branz, a member of the Wyoming Historical Commission, there were a number of lakes like Lake Alexander around the City of Wyoming, To eliminate each home having its own well, the city developed a water well system and eventually the water was drawn off and consumed, accord to the Wyoming history book “Wilderness to Wyoming.”

By 1966, due to a federal government mapping project, the name of the park had been changed to Jackson. With water from the lake decreasing, the city began to move dirt to the area to establish the park, Branz said.

From the splash pad, looking north past the new bathroom facilities, you can see signs of the water pumping station.

“I think this is great,” said Wyoming resident Chris Hall, who had students in the band and one running through the splash pad. Hall, who is on the city’s Community Development Committee, said it was wonderful that the city takes great care with its parks, which offer an array of activities for residents that are only walking distance away.

Funding for the Jackson Park project was provided through the City’s Capital Projects Revolving Fund, with staff support through the City’s dedicated Parks and Recreation Operational Millage.

Jackson Park is the third park in a period of four years to have been redeveloped. The pocket park Ferrand Park, located along Byron Center Avenue, was completed in 2018 with Ideal Park completed in 2020.

The city continues its work on the parks, turning its focus to Gezon Park with bids out for the next phase of work at the park which will include a larger splash pad. Also, Rynbrandt said the city will be opening up the process for resident input on the future of Marquette Park, the city’s most northern park located at 1251 Marquette SW.

“We are hoping for 2,000 responses,” Rynbrandt said the Marquette Park project. “We had 1,800 for [Jackson Park] and as you can see, it made it happen.”

Wyoming hosts reopening celebration for Jackson Park June 5

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Among the new features at Jackson Park is the playground located near the new splashpad. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

Walk or drive past Wyoming’s Jackson Park and you can not help but notice that there has been a lot of activity over there.

 

One of the targeted parks on the city’s park improvement campaign, the City of Wyoming approved a $1.4 million investment to Jackson Park last year. This allowed for several new features at the parking such as a splash pad, playground shelter, parking lot, and security lighting. These are all features that came from resident input into the designs, said City of Wyoming Director Rebecca Rynbrandt.

 

After being closed for about a year due to construction, Wyoming residents are invited to celebrate the grand reopening of Jackson Park at a special event this Saturday at 10 a.m. at the park, 1331 33rd St. SW. The hour-long celebration will feature family activities and opportunities to play on the new constructed splash pad.

When the city talked to residents about what they wanted at Jackson Park, many stated a splash pad. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

“We are excited to reopen Jackson Park for our residents”, said Wyoming Mayor Jack Poll, who added the redevelopment has been highly anticipated by area residents with the city happy to have the park complete.

Design work on the park started in 2015, with the city collecting input from residents, Rynbrandt said. But the economy and mother nature forced the city to reprioritize funds to Ideal Park which had been severely impacted by tornadoes and flooding, she said.

Last spring, during the pandemic, the city approved a $1.3 million contract with Katerberg Verhage for the work at Jackson Park. Katerberg Verhage also lead the redevelopment of Ideal Park.

Crews were able to keep working on the park through the pandemic with construction completed on time for the planned reopening this summer.

“We are pleased to celebrate the grand reopening of Jackson Park,” Rynbrandt said. “We pride ourselves on excellent facilities and know that the improved accessibility of Jackson Park will be a great asset to the families of our community.”

Also new at Jackson Park are the covered seating areas. WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

Jackson Park is approximately 22 acres. It resides in a densely populated residential area of the City of Wyoming which is made up of single-family homes and borders the Wyoming Intermediate School.

Along with the new additions, Jackson Park has eight tennis courts, a basketball court and a play area located by the school. The park also hosts a large green space which provides for storm-water storage for the neighborhood during heavy rain events.

Funding for the project is being provided through the City’s Capital Projects Revolving Fund, with staff support through the City’s dedicated Parks and Recreation Operational Millage.

Jackson Park is the third park in a period of four years to have been redeveloped. The pocket park Ferrand Park, located along Byron Center Avenue, was completed in 2018 with Ideal Park completed in 2020. The city has a total of 21 parks. 

Just the Facts: Scientists debate how to reopen the world

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By WKTV Staff
joanne@wktv.org

Getting Off the Life Raft

“We’ve managed to get to the life raft,” says epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), in a recent AAAS/Science Magazine article. “But I’m really unclear how we will get to the shore.”

The article states that as governments move forward, there are many things officials will have to consider such as health of citizen, freedoms of the population, and economic constraints. Countries will be follow different paths to reopen as there is no controlled experiments to compare the effectiveness of different social distancing measures with one expert noting the comparisons of these paths could be revealing. 

Breaking those habits

As the debate continues on when U.S. states and cities will reopen, one item everyone can agree on is that to beat the pandemic, everyone will need to make a change in their behavior. Throughout the crisis, people have been ordered to seek protection in large and small ways from washing their hands to avoiding almost all physical contact.

According to an AAAS/Science Magazine article, politicians, executives and Facebook and Twitter leaders have consulted with Robb Willer, a sociologist at Stanford University who has recruited more than 40 top behavioral sciences to help determine how to steer people into certain actions.

U.S. Census Delayed

When it comes to the U.S. Census, it appears U.S. leaders are in agreement: data collection is going to be delayed. The Trump administration has requested that Congress give the Census Bureau a four-month extension, until April 30, 2021, to deliver its data to the president and another four months to tell each state how many seats it will hold in the 435-member House. 

The reason for the request, according to an article in AAAS/Science Magazine, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the Census Bureau to delay sending out enumerators to track down anyone who hasn’t already completed the 10-question census that became available last month. Field operations are expected to continue until the end of October, making it impossible to meet the current statutory deadlines, which had field work being completed on Aug. 14.