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Evansville celebrates new park

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Photo by Matthew Wisniewski

After 10 years of work and preparation, Evansville's new West Side Park has opened on South Sixth Street between Porter Road and West Main Street. The city plans to celebrate the new park's opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 2:45 p.m. Saturday.

EVANSVILLE — Kids from the growing number of homes on Evansville's west side have a long-awaited place to play.

Planning for West Side Park started 10 years ago with residential development on Evansville's west side. The recently opened park now is attracting plenty of kids, Park & Recreation Board Chairwoman Janis Ringhand said.

"That area seems to attract young families, (and) the majority have young children," she said of the residential development. "It's just something the city thought was necessary."

The city will celebrate the new park's opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 2:45 p.m. Saturday. The park is on Sixth Street between Porter Road and Main Street.

The park sprouted from a donation of more than 10 acres from developers Roger Berg, Robbie Petterson and Phil Woodworth. The city later bought more than 4 acres to make a 15-acre park, Ringhand said.

The city gathered input from the neighborhood and from open houses six to eight years ago before adding the park development to the five-year capital plan, she said.

Last year, two soccer fields were graded and seeded and are being used for the first time this fall. Playground equipment and a parking lot went in this summer.

A small pavilion and restrooms are planned to be built next year, Ringhand said.

The park's future includes one baseball diamond with a T-ball diamond, two basketball courts, ice skating and landscaping, she said.

Starting next year, the park board is proposing to allocate $200,000 for each of the next five years to complete the park, she said. The park board will have to decide the order of when the remaining additions are competed, she said.

The park board discussed naming the park after a local person, but the people the city contacted declined, she said. The name "West Side Park" always was used in the planning, and it stuck, she said.

While many of the city's other parks are smaller, officials felt a larger park was needed in the growing area, Ringhand said.

"It's been very busy," she said. "Kids are really enjoying it."