Little room to enhance downtown New London site

By Scott Bellile

New London has grant dollars available to enhance a downtown park, but the site in question is so small that city officials are stumped as to how to spend the money.

There is $67,396 remaining of a $195,000 Stewardship Grant the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources awarded to the city in 2016. The city spent part of this matching grant to purchase a fishing pier and boat dock for St. John’s Park in 2017.

The remainder of this 50/50 grant must be spent on St. John’s Park if the city chooses to use it. The alternative is for New London to return the unused money to the state.

At 0.4 acres, St. John’s Park is tied with Taft Park for the third smallest park in New London.

“It’s kind of a small site,” Public Services Director Chad Hoerth told the New London Parks and Recreation Committee on Feb. 5. “I haven’t had any luck thinking of anything else major to use $67,000 for on that site. Plus, on the other hand, the city is on the hook for 50 percent [of the] cost.”

“The problem is we still have to have the city be able to come up with the matching funds, and we haven’t budgeted for that,” committee member and Third District Alderwoman Lori Dean added.

Adding to the uncertainty is the grant description specifies it must be applied toward “nature-based outdoor recreation.”

According to Hoerth, this parameter rules out projects such as a playground or a sports field.

A project, if decided upon, must be engineered by June and constructed no later than June 2020, Hoerth said.

A restroom facility would be a suitable project for the site, Hoerth said, because it would fit the DNR’s nature-based recreation requirement by serving boaters and fisherpersons.

Water and sewer service are already available at the property.

However, to comply with flood regulations, a restroom built next to the Wolf River would have to be located 2 feet above the 100-year flood elevation. Factor in the 15 feet of fill that would be required around the structure for additional flooding protection, and a restroom facility could be hard to fit onto the site, according to Hoerth.

Besides the seasonal dock, St. John’s Park contains picnic tables, a public parking lot and three trees.

Committee member Henrica Bult, who operates Bult’s Quality Bake Shop next door, said she sees a surprising number of people sit at the picnic tables or lie on the grass, sometimes trying to relax under the limited shade available.

She suggested planting more shade trees or installing additional picnic tables or benches.

Committee member and First District Alderman John Faucher also suggested educational interpretive signage on relevant history such as New London’s boat-building past.

Hoerth said he asked the DNR to use the grant to build a kayak launch downriver where the Wolf and Embarrass rivers converge, but the DNR insisted the money be used at St. John’s Park.

The committee did not recommend any purchases yet.