ROTARY PARK … Shown is North Park in Wauseon. Changes to this park will be made first and may be finished by the beginning of summer. (PHOTO PROVIDED)
By: Jacob Kessler
The Wauseon Rotary Club has big plans in the works for Wauseon Parks. The first plan currently being put into place is a complete overhaul of North Park.
Also known as Memorial Park, North Park opened on June 19th, 1924. The park has a playground, a half basketball court and a War Memorial Statue.
It is located off West Elm Street in-between Monroe Street and Madison Street.
This park has the oldest equipment of all the parks in the city and has been vandalized numerous times.
The plan is to completely change out the playground equipment so that there will be two different styles.
One set of equipment will be in place for 1–5-year old’s and another set will be in place for 5–12-year old’s.
In addition to the new equipment, a sprucing up will also take place for the swings and the ground covering, which is currently stone.
Rich Shehorn with the Rotary explained that the hope is to get the project underway soon. “This will be a great addition to the community for sure.”
“We are in the early stages right now, but we are hoping for completion by late spring into early Summer. We are getting ready to get the ball rolling,” said Mr. Shehorn.
Plans are also being made for just about every park in Wauseon as well, including what could be a new park.
A plan is currently in the works to put a new park in near the pavilion located at the Homecoming Hill. Work will also be done to the current Homecoming Park including looking at the drainage issues that currently affect the park.
“We are going to be giving a facelift to a number of parks. There are roughly six parks we would like to do something at.”
“It is not going to be something that is done overnight. It will take time. We have plans in place to make our Wauseon parks really really good and here in the next 3-5 years we will get through them all,” said Shehorn.
The Rotary is able to complete projects like this through donations provided by members of the public.
One such way the public can help is by supporting the 4th Annual Wauseon Dueling Pianos & Reverse Raffle.
The event will take place on April 1st, 2023, with doors opening at 4:30 p.m. The event will be featuring Cool2Duel and will take place at the Fulton County Fairground Junior Fair Building.
For tickets, you can contact 419-583-9589 or ask one of your local Rotary members.
Jacob can be reached at jacob@thevillagereporter.com