Dog park, baseball dugouts and more featured in Le Center preliminary parks plan

With the city of Le Center aiming to revitalize the community’s parks with new opportunities for outdoor fun, the City Council approved a preliminary parks plan to map out the future of local recreation.

At the City Council’s September meeting, Mayor Christian Harmeyer described the parks plan as a first step to help the city acquire state and grant funding to support its recreation goals and budget its capital improvement funds for future projects.

“As monies come in with the capital improvements or donations, we can start doing things,” said Harmeyer.

While the plan doesn’t have a timeline associated with any particular project, West Park is being prioritized for improvements due to the age of its facilities. All of the park’s existing facilities, from its two softball fields, volleyball courts, hockey rink and playground date back to the park’s original development in the mid-90s. City Administrator Dan Evans said the city has also received interest from residents in improving the park.

“There’s not a rhyme or reason, or necessarily an order of importance, but like the Mayor indicated we’ll probably start at West Park because we’ve had some people approach the city to talk about in-kind services and donations and things of that nature,” said Evans.

Some of the top requests for West Park are new dugouts for the softball fields. Harmeyer envisioned each dugout would have a roof, giving softball teams a break from the sweltering summer sun, and would be painted with the silver and blue colors of Tri-City United.

A new scoreboard for the east field is also on the city’s agenda. Replacing one would cost the city around $15,000, while installing scoreboards for both fields would raise the cost to approximately $40,000. Other proposed improvements to the softball fields include new dugouts and a batting cage.

The city of Le Center has long lacked a dog park, but the preliminary parks plan envisions a new pet-friendly park being installed in a forested area just west of the softball fields, alongside new woodchip trails through the woods. East of the softball fields, the parks plan envisions a membrane being added to the hockey rink so that it could function as a pickleball court during the spring, summer and fall months.

In addition to these improvements, the parks plan calls for new insulation for the warming house, new playground equipment, and an enhanced soccer field with fencing, stands and proper improved drainage.

On Ray Plut Field, the parks plan calls for a replacement of the aging dugout roofs and additional fencing, updates to the bathrooms, the construction of a grandstand and stage north of the field and improvements to playground equipment.

Le Center’s most recently dedicated park, Ron Germscheid Memorial Park, would witness dugout replacements, updated playground equipment and new grills according to the plan.