Park closed: Manawa's youth sports dealing with major losses

Manawa city officials say after major flooding on Friday, the city's largest park is closed for the season.

• Manawa Youth Sports secretary Corrine Zielke said the organization lost a lot, including a lawn tractor and concessions, in last Friday's flood.
• Manawa Mayor Mike Frazier says Lindsay Park suffered extensive flood damage.
• The flooding came as a result of the Manawa Dam's partial failure last Friday.
• Water from the dam flooded the city's Wastewater Treatment Plant, which lies next to the park.
• Overflowing sewage water drained directly into the park.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story, with additional details for the web)

"We bought a brand new lawn tractor, for example, and it's there in the shed. It flooded. All of our concessions, we lost, we bought a brand new freezer. That's lost," said Zielke.

Manawa Youth Sports secretary Corrine Zielke is talking about the toll last Friday's flood took on youth sports.

Lindsay Park was home base for the city's youth sports, but now they have to find other places to play and Zielke says they're getting help from other nearby neighborhoods.

"We're doing our best to keep the normalcy for the kids," Zielke said. They didn't get the rodeo parade and all the July 4th festivities and we just don't want to take this away from them, too."

Last Friday's heavy rain caused widespread flooding and issues for many in this neighborhood.

Lindsay Park is right next to the city's Wastewater Treatment Plant. Mayor Mike Frazier says more than four to five feet of floodwater and sewage covered this area."

"When the flood went through our wastewater plant, it took some raw sewage on top of it. That's why [the baseball field] is so black right now.

Manawa Mayor Mike Frazier also says while the water has subsided, the city can't just open it back up.

"Our park, we found out, is not covered by insurance. Most of it is totally destroyed," said Mayor Frazier.

Mayor Frazier has consulted both the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Health Department …

"They've even talked about totally digging down like 12 inches because of the bacteria from the raw sewage to make sure because it's hazardous to people's health," said Mayor Frazier.

Jordan Buckholt lives in Manawa. He says going to this park has been a big part of his life.

"You know, we love walking our dogs through there, it's our favorite spot to go," Buckholt said.

But after the flood, he's not sure what's next for the park.

"You know, you got so much sewage in there now, it's bad. It's horrible, the diamonds have been destroyed, the park has, it's ruined," said Buckholt.

Mayor Frazier says he isn't giving up hope that Lindsay Park can reopen and says the city is working with the state to see how much it would cost to bring it back.