Mindowaskin Improvements Planned for Park's 2018 Centennial

Mindowaskin Park is slated to receive a facelift in the nine years leading up to the park's centennial in 2018.

The town will be teaming with Friends of Mindowaskin, a non-profit which raises funds for the park, on the project. The confirmed projects center mainly on drainage and other infrastructure improvements, which will be funded primarily by the non-profit group. The town owns the park and will be taking the lead in doing the fundraising of this.

"We've partnered with Friends of Mindowaskin on a nine-year plan to get ready for the centennial," Mayor Andy Skibitsky said of the initiative, entitled Mindowaskin 2018.

Deborah Burslem, the president of Friends of Mindowaskin, said the only confirmed project will involve dredging the park's centerpiece pond. A dredging is needed to allow the water to better flow from the small waterway leading into the pond. Following the dredging, work will be done to reconstruct the banks of the pond, which have suffered from erosion issues, along with work to redirect water to the pump station, which helps run the park's signature fountains. This work should help eliminate pond scum and films on top of the pond.

Following the pond projects, Burslem said other ideas have been considered but nothing has been finalized. The ideas have been discussed over time in relation to the park. The town owns the park and will be making the final decisions on any improvement projects.

These include possibly putting fencing around the playground, along with other playground improvements. She said parents frequently request the fencing in order to reduce geese droppings on the playground.

The park's foot bridge could be upgraded for a better walking environment along with more plantings being put into place. Burslem said plantings could be planned for the area bordering Mountain Avenue, with the possibility of placing wild flowers and herb gardens in this part of the park. When the park was first constructed, the area near Mountain Avenue contained a variety of flowers which have since been taken out of commission.

"It's nothing that can be done in one full swoop," she said of the reason behind a nine-year plan for the project.

Burslem said that Friends of Mindowaskin is currently selling granite pavers to the paths leading up to the bandstand. The bandstand has already been improved based on the fundraising efforts of the group. Money from this project will help with future improvements and the other projects in the pipeline. Several years ago, Friends of Mindowaskin raised the funds to install a new overlook on the pond just off East Broad Street.

The town has committed to handling the work to improve the park with the bulk of the funds being raised by a variety of groups and through grants from public and private entities. Skibitsky would not commit to if the town will be spending public funds on the project. He noted the town is currently in the middle of a budget crunch which could make it tough to spend on the park. Given the multi-year nature of the project, which extends past his current term, he said he did not want to tie the hands of future administrations with park spending commitments.

"We hope to raise a lot of money," Skibitsky said.