K99.3 FM Listen Live
1520AM Listen Live
| NASDAQ | 3462.61 | ||
| S&P 500 | 1667.47 |
ABC News Now
It was a Day of Community Service for employees from IU Health Starke Hospital Friday at Wythogan Park in Knox.
Approximately 50 volunteers from the hospital took four hours to install exercise equipment at the park as a way to help residents get moving and improve wellness.
Vandals have struck at Wythogan Park already this spring.
Park Superintendent George Byer told Knox City Police officers that on Monday, April 1 he found that some unknown person(s) spray painted graffiti on the new curly slide. The suspects also spray painted graffiti on a brick building inside the park.
The installation of the new playground equipment for Wythogan Park has hit a bit of a snag. Park Superintendent George Byer told the city council at their meeting last week that the equipment was delivered, but it had been damaged during shipment. As a result, the installation of the equipment is on hold until the replacement equipment has been received from American Playground. The company has agreed to deliver new equipment themselves to the park.
The park crew was out yesterday morning preparing for the new equipment.
Wythogan Park in Knox is closed for the season, but repairs and improvements are still ongoing. Park Superintendent George Byer told the city council this week that they are currently waiting for the delivery of 30 trees to be planted in the park, and crews are also working on installing a new piece of playground equipment.
Though the park is open, work is still being done to restore Wythogan Park in Knox to its former glory. Park Superintendent George Byer said the majority of stumps and trees have been removed, but approximately 50 stumps that were uprooted by the storms still need to be taken out.
Byer said these stumps will be split between the street department and a contractor, with each taking 25 stumps from the park. The park board is still waiting on bids to come in for the stump removal, and Byer said once they’ve received all the bids and chosen the best contractor for the job, the first 25 stumps will be removed by the contractor. The remaining stumps will then be handled by the street department as quickly as time allows.
Knox City Council
The Knox City Council learned last night that the cleanup at Wythogan Park should be complete today or tomorrow, but Park Superintendent George Byer said that does not include cleanup toward the back of the park. He said the walkway area will be completely cleared this week after more than 125 tree stumps were ground down and more than 40 root balls removed from the walking path area.
Mayor Rick Chambers requested permission from the council to use funds that had been previously approved to cut down cottonwood trees in the park. He said they had planned to use $1500 to remove the trees because they thought they were growing into the sewer lines, which could cause severe problems, but he said the loggers working on the park’s cleanup were able to remove those trees at no additional cost.
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers has announced that Wythogan Park will open today.
The walking trail will be open to the public but visitors are asked to maneuver around the park with caution. Some areas will still be closed due to debris.
Contractors will continue working in the park until all of the debris is cleared out, but the majority of the larger logs and branches have been cleared from the park.
The park was closed after a July 24 storm reeled through the Knox area, causing thousands of dollars in damage within Wythogan Park. The storm also caused millions of dollars in damage to the Starke County Airport. The Starke County Courthouse suffered damage as well as the radio tower at the Starke County Sheriff’s Department. All entities are still attempting to pick up the pieces after the storm nearly two months later.
“It’s starting to look like a park again.”
Knox Park Superintendent George Byer says the cleanup at Wythogan Park is nearing completion, and the park is almost clear enough to allow visitors once again. With brush pickup said to be roughly two-thirds complete, and the cleanup of trees and hanging branches almost halfway complete, Byer says the park doesn’t look so much like a disaster area anymore.
“The park is looking great compared to what it was here a month ago,” Byer said. “It takes time to clean up a disaster like we’ve got. I think we’re moving along very well with it.”
Wythogan Park in Knox is still closed as work remains underway to clear the debris and remove precariously-balanced branches dangerously dangling overhead. Park Superintendent George Byer told the city council this week that the contractor who has been hired to do a lot of the clearing will begin on Monday.
Despite Monday, Sept. 3 being a holiday, Byer says the contractor is anxious to get started on the cleanup. The walkway has been cleared and a very large amount of branches, limbs, logs, and other wood has already been hauled out, but they’ve got a long way to go.
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers would like to remind all residents that Wythogan Park is still closed while cleanup crews continue efforts to remove branches, limbs, debris, and other items strewn about and destroyed from the July storms.
Chambers says the park is closed until further notice, but he’s hopeful that it will open toward the end of September. He says the council is hoping to let a contract this week for the cleanup work, but the contractors have indicated that it would take roughly four to six weeks after the bid is awarded before the cleanup can be completed.
This is just an example of the devastation at Wythogan Park.
Knox Park Board President Kurt Snearly says Wythogan Park is still closed to the general public, but loggers and tree service professionals will soon be hired to help clean up the hundreds of trees, branches and limbs that littered the park after a huge storm rolled through Knox on July 24.
Snearly says the park employees are doing their best to clean up as much as possible and progress has been made. Loose branches are still hanging from atop many mangled trees and until those are taken care of, the park will remain closed.
Knox Mayor Rick Chambers is working on getting quotes for clean-up and removal of debris.
Many branches like this one are dangling dangerously above, presenting a serious hazard to visitors.
Uprooted trees, downed power lines, fences torn asunder – this is just some of the damage at Wythogan Park in the wake of the July 24 storms.
The park has been closed as a result of the devastation, and Park Superintendent George Byer urges residents to stay away. He says the risk of injury is too great to enter the park, because there are a lot of branches dangling by a thread that could fall at any moment.
Wythogan Park suffered a lot of damage from the storms.
Park crews continue to clean up after last week’s storms that caused damage to Wythogan Park as well as the Starke County Airport, the Starke County Courthouse, and the Starke County Sheriff’s Department dispatch tower.
There is such destruction at the park that Knox Park Board President Kurt Snearly says the Harvest Fest will need to be moved elsewhere.
“We met with the Harvest Festival Committee Chairman, Michelle Bechtel, and she had as much concern about holding it in the park as we did,” explained Snearly. “Due to safety concerns, we’re just not so sure we can even have it at the park.”
The 70 mph winds bent this tree in half and uprooted others.
Wythogan Park sustained an extreme amount of damage during Tuesday morning’s storms. Park Board President Kurt Snearly talks about the destruction.
“We had six utility poles that had to be replaced and NIPSCO did a fantastic job,” explained Snearly. “They worked extremely hard for four straight days to get that cleaned up. There was fencing damage to the tennis court and our brand new $12,000 slide was damaged. The playground equipment like the spring toys, the curly slide, the climbing equipment and swings were all damaged. The shelters and fields did make it…somehow. The amount of trees that are down in the park right now is staggering.”
The three-man park crew have been cleaning up the smaller debris, but it’s going to take much more to clean-up the park.
