Rick and April Sasso (front, center, with scissors) cut the ribbon Monday, Dec. 11, for the Center Lake Recreational Trail during the ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce, K21 Health Foundation, city of Warsaw, A & Z Engineering, R. Yoder Construction and Warsaw Parks Board and staff. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — The new Center Lake Recreational Trail will allow people of all abilities the opportunity to walk along the beach and have access to the park’s amenities.

At noon Monday, Dec. 11, the city had a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce, project engineers and construction company, K21 Health Foundation, members of the Warsaw Parks Board, Parks employees and the Sasso family. The Sasso family donated $1 million for the trail.

“We’ve been so excited about this project. This project has been on the board for a long time. Rick and April (Sasso) and the family have really kind of us given a full go with whatever we wanted to do, so we wanted to do something that would be for the community that would be something that they would appreciate. At the end of the day, I think we hit it with this project,” Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer said.

City Planner Justin Taylor was involved early on with the project and its concept.

“Buffalo Street, as it approaches the lake, is one of my very first memories of living in Warsaw. About 30 years ago, Buffalo Street just dove right into the lake and that was the boat launch,” Taylor recalled. “But, for somebody new to the city, it wasn’t welcoming. You didn’t know how you were supposed to approach the lake. So once the Buffalo Street Plaza went in, and then there were some other elements in the park that were being improved, and the pavilion was being improved, it really made a lot of sense to tie all of these elements together.”

With the approximately $3 million in improvements to the Zimmer Biomet Center Lake Pavilion, which the Zimmer Biomet Foundation provided a $2.5 million for, the pavilion now opens up on the lake side, which it didn’t do before.

“It went out to the lake and there was access to the lake there, but if you were in a wheelchair, you wouldn’t have any access to the lake. So with this trail, we saw a lot of opportunities to improve the access and tie-in all of these great amenities, including the newly finished Buffalo Street Plaza, to the rest of the park. This trail accomplishes all of that and more, and we’re just so excited,” Taylor said.

The trail is a quarter of a mile long. “So it’s just a great beginning to what could be a trail that extends even farther along the lake front. The word to remember is ‘access.’ We wanted to create as much access to the lakefront for the public as possible,” he continued.

There’s the plaza area where people can fish. The fountain, which is Americans with Disabilities Act accessible. The newly renovated pavilion is ADA compatible. There’s the tennis and pickleball courts and the playgrounds, all of which are accessible, he said.

“We had some great partners — A & Z Engineering really helped us get the drawings from a very early” standpoint, he said, to the construction documents. City engineer Aaron Ott worked with A & Z “really well” to help bring the vision to fruition, Taylor said, and R. Yoder Construction “really worked hard to get this done in a timely manner.”

Warsaw Mayor Joe Thallemer, left, presents a mock up of a plaque that will be posted along the Center Lake Recreational Trail to Rick and April Sasson on Monday. Dec 11. during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the trail. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

There are a few little loose ends to finish, Taylor said. Things to look for in the future include the removal of the existing pier near the pavilion, the addition of two new piers where people will be able to fish and interact with the water, and even dock a boat.

“None of this could have happened without the Sasso family,” Taylor stated.

Thallemer pointed out the paddleboard rentals kiosk, which he thanked K21 and K21 CEO Rich Haddad for their assistance on.

Ott pointed out the pump house is a part of the project yet to be finished. It eventually will be part of what leads out to a “nice” pier, he said, but for now it will be a deck and outlook amenity. R. Yoder Construction’s last task is to finish that up, but they’re waiting on materials.

“We also have a really important mission in the city for public art, and we started on Buffalo Street with a beautiful sculpture, and that portion on Buffalo Street connects all the way up to the boat launch. And, we just a couple months ago put in a piece of art that the Milton Holmgrain family donated to the city. They donated about seven pieces of outdoor sculpture, and we already found a home for two of them just along this trail. So we’re really excited to continue the importance of public art in the community,” Thallemer said.

Suzie Light, Warsaw Public Arts Commission chair, said the city has seven sculptures currently installed and four more coming. Thallemer mentioned there’s also several murals and plans for “many, many other things.”

“Trails — thank you, Rick and April — are really important to quality of life, as is art, and to be able to pair art along this beautiful trail – the trail itself is a piece of art – but then to be able to have some sculptures so that people of all abilities can access it – thank you! It’s awesome to see all of this stuff happening,” Light stated.

After introductions of the staff from R. Yoder Construction, Thallemer said, “They did a great job. They stayed on time, they stayed on focus and just did a marvelous job.” Members of the A & Z Engineering team also were introduced.

Warsaw Parks Maintenance Director Shaun Gardner reported, “We saw an instant impact, as soon as construction was done. There have been multiple families walking every day out here. From a parks standpoint, starting from the splashpad, past the playgrounds to the boat ramp, they can see everything we have to offer here along the lake. And you’re not just driving by it on the road, you can actually walk it and interact. We’re super excited to have it as part of the parks.”

Thallemer said Central Park, with the pavilion and all of its amenities, is the heartbeat of the community and the recreational trail invites people to the lake.

“We’ve got a lot of people in this community that don’t have access to a lake. We’ve got over a hundred lakes (in this county), a lot of us have the privilege to live on a lake or be close to a lake and be able to utilize it, but there’s a lot of folks that don’t. Our parks are what allow our community to enjoy the lakes, and this feature, this recreational trail, is not just going to allow them to enjoy the lake, it’s going to invite them,” Thallemer said.

There are benches coming, but he said for the most part the project is completed.

After the ceremony, Haddad said that during HyettPalma’s restudy of downtown Warsaw earlier this year, the public was asked at a meeting what is the most unique part of downtown Warsaw. The collective answer was that it was connected to a lake, Center Lake.

“So for this recreational trail to continue to help foster that connectivity and advancing people being able to enjoy the lake off of downtown Warsaw is a huge win and moves us forward in what makes Warsaw unique,” he said.

During the ceremony, after everyone viewed a drone video of the trail, provided by the Warsaw Police Department, Thallemer then presented a mock-up of a plaque that will be put along the trail for everyone to see. The plaque reads: “The Center Lake Recreational Trail. With generous support from Rick and April Sasso, we celebrate this path to wellness, accessible by all, to benefit lives today and into the future. Dedicated 2023.”

Three members of the Warsaw Parks Board were present at the ceremony — Councilwoman Diane Quance, Jill Beehler and Michelle Boxell.

Quance said she was teaching a class in the pool at the YMCA Monday morning. There are several handicapped people in her class, and when she told them she would be attending the ribbon-cutting for the trail, they told her, “We are so excited because we can finally walk along the lake or be pushed along the lake. We could never do that before.”

She said people are excited about it.

Thallemer said Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer told him that his father, who is in a wheelchair, loved the new trail and was just back and forth on it. “I think that’s something that’s really touching all of us, that we’re bringing our recreation, our natural assets to our community, to our entire community,” he said.

After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, with the Sassos cutting the ribbon, Rick said he thought the trail was “outstanding.”
“It looks beautiful,” April said. “I can’t wait to see it in the spring, for sure. I love the accessibility of it. It’s just wonderful, I think. It’s a great, important part of the feature.”

Rick gave a “big thanks” to Thallemer. “For him to put this together is remarkable and his vision. For me, personally, this place is very, very special to me. My mom would bring my little brother and I here. Some of my first memories were from right here on the beaches of Center Lake. Coming up to the pavilion, my mom would bring my little brother and I up to get popsicles and ice cream sandwiches and hot dogs and popcorn and cotton candy. Some great memories.

“And just like Mayor Joe said, although we have a lot of lakes here and a lot of people have the advantage of living on a lake, when you’re a young family living in downtown Warsaw, you don’t have that. You just don’t have that. And having a public place that is so nice like Center Lake is remarkable,” Rick stated.

He said he and his brother learned to play tennis at the tennis courts.

“This place is really, really special for me and my memory growing up here in Warsaw.”

He said their ability to give back is super important. Warsaw set him up to succeed as an adult, and it was important for them to contribute back, he said.

“It’s beautiful. It’s gorgeous. It really is. It really is something,” Rick concluded.