Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

WORLAND — Thanks to partnerships with different entities the city of Worland continues to improve and enhance the numerous parks and green space around the community.

Worland has eight city/neighborhood parks and additional greenspace with the back field of the Worland Community Center Complex. Two major improvements were completed at Hillcrest Park and the community center earlier this spring.

So far, the parks department has been fortunate to leverage city funds with help from other agencies, to make improvements as needed, Worland Public Works Superintendent Brian Burky said.

At Hillcrest, the project to add new playground equipment that began with a public meeting last year, ended last month with Williston Basin Interstate constructing the new playground equipment.

Burky said the parents and other residents who attended last year’s public meeting helped pick out the colors and the equipment for the playground. He said he presented four options to the parents and they selected a combination of two. The equipment includes a popular zip line, a climbing area, a multi-person swing and a playset with traditional swings.

He said one thing he hadn’t realized until they were installing the equipment is there are figures, such as dinosaurs, under the equipment and he has noticed children looking for the different figures hidden beneath the woodchips.

He said there is equipment for active play to improve coordination and strength and social play.

“It’s been a nice addition to the neighborhood and the community,” Burky said.

Some of the old playground equipment remains, such as older swings and the merry-go-round. The climber equipment to the east of the new equipment will probably be removed, Burky said. “I believe it’s at the end of it’s useful life.”

To make room for the new equipment they had to remove the popular digger equipment, which gave Hillcrest Park it’s nickname of digger park. He said he has had requests for it to return and since it was not damaged in the removal they will be putting it back although there is not a set time when that will occur.

Once the colors and equipment were chosen last year, Burky said he realized the project was going to be over budget so he approached the Worland Recreation Board for funding and they were able to purchase one of the pieces so the project could be completed as the public envisioned.

“[The playground equipment] has been very, well received. I was up there on a weekend and there were 18 children playing at one time and there was no special event. They were having fun and that’s the name of the game,” Burky said.

DANIELS FUND ASSISTANCE

Worland Recreation also assisted in the other major project this spring, installation of an underground sprinkler system at the community center.

Burky said the project used city funds, the $55,000 Daniels Fund grant, $15,000 from the Worland Recreation Board and Worland Community Center Joint Powers Board and additional funding from CultureFest, football club and soccer club.

Burky said all the groups contributed to the project but it was grant from the Daniels Fund that really made the project possible.

According to danielsfund.org, “The Daniels Fund, established by cable television pioneer Bill Daniels, is a private charitable foundation dedicated to making life better for the people of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming through its grants program, scholarship program, and ethics initiative.”

The grant program funds projects in the area of aging, amateur sports, disabilities, drug and alcohol addiction, early childhood education, homeless and disadvantaged, K-12 education reform and youth development.

The old system was inefficient and labor intensive, Burky said. Each day, parks crews would have to come lay out pipe and set the water. They would water one area until noon, come and remove all the pipe so it could be used in the afternoon, and the process would repeat each day of the week. He said it would take all week to completely water the backfield.

Now, with the new irrigation system, the city still uses water from the canal, but the system is run on a timer and the entire field can be watered in the evening so it is ready for use in the morning and all day.

During times of extreme heat, Burky said they can adjust and water it more often if needed, especially if there are a lot of events on the field.

Bids for the project came under estimates so they were able to make some upgrades including have a top filtration system.

OTHER PARKS

Not only is the watering more efficient, Burky said, it also frees up the parks crews to work on other needed projects in the other parks around the city.

Burky said all the parks need restroom improvements, except Sanders, which has the newest restrooms. He said he would also like to have new picnic tables and benches at each park, as funding allows.

Burky said he feels the parks are important to the community in giving people an opportunity to recreate and it’s an important part to the quality of life offered here.

Veterans Park is another park that had a major improvement this spring, with the additional of a large picnic shelter funded by the American Legion Post 44.

Burky said he is hoping to fund a sidewalk from the new shelter to the restrooms at Veterans Park, along with some picnic tables for the shelter and some landscaping.

Veterans Park is also home to the skate park.

The shelter, constructed by the American Legion Post 44, was put in this spring and is the largest at any of the city’s parks. The Legion, however, only had funding for the shelter with the amenities having to come later as money is available.

Riverside Park, which features playground equipment and an exercise path, has funding assistance from Worland Rotary, Burky noted.

At Kiwanis Park, he said Kiwanis is wanting to help with improvements, including new playground equipment but there are no definitive plans at this time. Burky said Kiwanis has a nice picnic shelter and a large field that is used for athletics, including soccer.

He said the playground equipment features equipment for ages 5-12 and additional equipment for ages 2-5.

At Sanders Park, Burky said the restroom is new. Crews have done a lot of maintenance on the dated playground equipment. Sanders has a nice picnic shelter and an open field.

Newell Sargent Park with baseball fields and other athletic fields is the highest use park. He said, “That’s a tremendous facility for the community.”

He added that the Newell Sargent Foundation is wanting to upgrade the entrance to the park but waiting until the Washakie Avenue improvements are complete. Burky said he has in his 2017-2018 budget a small new restroom to serve the southside of the park.

The Foundation also assists with funding improvements at Pioneer Square. Plans are to improve the bathrooms and the entrance to that park.

Firehouse Park, adjacent and set back of the Worland Fire Hall, is the city’s smallest park but does get plenty of use.