Warsaw Park Board Elects Officers, Hears Ice Rink Update From Superintendent
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
The only action the Warsaw Parks and Recreation Board took at its meeting Tuesday was to approve the November meeting minutes and election of officers.
Board member Bill Baldwin moved to keep officers the same for 2020 as 2019. That includes Steve Haines as president and Larry Ladd as vice president.
Parks Superintendent Larry Plummer gave the board an update on the ice rink efforts.
He reminded the board that the last time Mayor Joe Thallemer was at the park board meeting, the mayor said he, Ladd, Haines and himself would meet with the consultants – an architectural firm from Valparaiso – for the ice rink.
They met, and after a “long” meeting, it was decided they needed to see a footprint of an ice rink and buildings at Bixler Park and at Central Park as well, to see how it all would fit between the east and west shelter parking lots.
At the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting Friday, Plummer said the Valparaiso architect was hired to do the renderings. “So that will be the next thing that comes to the park board – for us to look at those and determine if we like either one of them or none of them or which one we do like,” he said.
The firm is Shive-Hattery.
Haines said it was a long meeting, and the architect was really good and has done ice rinks all over the country.
“I think probably a little bit out of our budget,” Haines said.
Maintenance Director Shaun Gardner provided his monthly maintenance report to the board.
He said the Christmas lights are all down and in storage. “We were lucky to have some great weather to take them down after New Year’s,” Gardner said.
Young Tigers Football worked the concession stand in December at Central Park while the lights were up. Gardner said they made $971, which Young Tigers donated back to the Parks for future displays.
“We’re really grateful for that,” he said. “I think we had good turnout just overall. The weather really helped as well.”
He said new countertops were installed at the Fireman’s Building at Pike Lake. It was done in-house, and it was being wrapped up Tuesday. A little painting touch-up will complete the work today.
Split-rail fencing has been installed along the parking lot at Kelly Park. Gardner said, “We’re starting to get some ruts off the parking lot where cars would nose off the parking stalls, so hopefully this fence will help convince them to stay on the parking lot. Either that or we’ll be repairing split-rail fencing in the future.”
Park laborers are nearing completion on refurbishing the big picnic tables, he said. After that, they’ll move to the small picnic tables, sawhorse tables, bike racks, etc.
“Pretty productive winter so far. The weather’s allowed us to get outside a few times, a little more often than normal. That kind of pushes back some of our inside stuff a little bit, but we’re getting caught up on that, too,” Gardner concluded.
Recreation Director Sheila Wieringa then gave the board her report.
She said last Friday was the first family game night. Thirty-two people showed up, and she said they had a great time. Wieringa said everyone said they would come again and more family game nights should be held. It was a collaboration with the Warsaw Community Public Library.
At this point, none are scheduled.
The Daddy-Daughter Dance is completely sold out. Wieringa said it took two weeks to sell out the 300 tickets for both nights.
This year, chicken strips and macaroni & cheese will be offered by Our Father’s House at the event, instead of just finger snacks. The ticket price for the dance did not increase from the $15 due to the additional food, she said.
Sunday, March 1 is the Prom & Bridal Expo, Wieringa reported. Last year was the first year for it, and this year the vendor spots are all sold for it.
“We expect a better turnout than we had last year,” she said.
