Warsaw Parks & Recreation Superintendent Larry Plummer

WARSAW — Tentative plans for modifying a tennis court into pickleball courts at Kelly Park are one step closer to becoming a reality. 

At the Warsaw Parks & Recreation board meeting held Tuesday, Feb. 19, Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer told board members that he applied for two grants to secure funding for the modifications.

“I went ahead and applied for the K21 Foundation and the Dr. Dane and Mary Louise Miller Foundation grants to cover 100 percent of the funding for that project. We split it 50/50,” said Plummer. “We should know sometime in March. If the project is funded, we’ll probably look at a May to June timeline to have that happen.”

Board members approved a request by WCS Food & Nutrition Services Assistant Director Stacie Light to continue offering the summer meal program at Bixler Park this year. 

“This is the 13th summer of this,” said Plummer, who said there have been no problems related to the program. “I think it’s been a good program for us. It’d be my recommendation to allow them to do it.”

Exact dates for the summer meal program have not yet been determined. Each day 90 to 130 lunches were served last summer in Bixler Park. The free meals are provided to any child 18 years of age and younger through the USDA Summer Feeding Program.

A year end report was presented at the meeting, which reviewed projects started and/or completed in 2018. This included, in part, new basketball courts at Richardson Dubois Park, shoreline stabilization of the Pike Lake Campgrounds, new floors and restroom fixtures at Pike Lake, replacement of the 50-year-old merry-go-round at Beyer Park with a ShadowPlay Skyrunner, new fencing installed around the Fireman’s Building and Beyer Farm Trail and new windows and siding at the Fireman’s Building as well as paving of the parking lot at that location. 

New picnic tables were purchased to replace the old tables at the Central Park east and west shelters. Plummer said that after the DNR completed paving of the new public access parking lot on the north side of Bixler Park, parks department employees were able to extend the ADA accessible sidewalk connecting the north Bixler shelter to the new parking lot.

Park employees installed new electrical panels to accommodate activities in Central Park and replaced fall protection mats at Kiddieland. New hours of operation signs have been installed throughout the parks, and the Tony Elliott memorial plaque was placed at Funk Park. The iStrike lightning detection system was also installed. 

The 2019 project matrix includes replacement of Kiddieland tables, installation of playground equipment at Kelly Park, LED exterior light replacement at park buildings, wood fiber replenishment at all parks, Plaza/Glover Pavilion stage repairs, concrete and grass seeding work at Rotary Park, a parking lot off of Baker Street, purchase of a new leaf vacuum and lawn mower, upgrades at Nye Youth Cabin and demolition/construction of the Lucerne Park Amphitheater. 

Other news:

• January 2019 meeting minutes were approved.
• Maintenance Director Shaun Gardner provided a monthly maintenance update.
• The next regular meeting will be at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 19.