This week, the city of Antigo approved a number of projects for 2024 for the parks, recreation, and cemetery department.
Among them- major upgrades to the skatepark, developments to Lakeside Park, remodeling restrooms, and installing sensory features in playgrounds.
2024 brings the promise of major changes to parks of the city of Antigo.
On Monday, the parks, recreation and cemetery department of Antigo presented their 2024 projects to the mayor and city council for approval.
The projects were approved by the council on Wednesday.
The changes include new skate park equipment, a boat landing at Lakeside Park, ball diamond improvements, and City Park East Shelter improvements.
They also plan on installing sensory features in playgrounds and buying a trailer, table, and chairs for the department.
Sarah Repp is the Parks, Recreation, and Cemetery Director for Antigo.
“There's a lot of really neat projects in here,” she said.
The mayor of Antigo, Terry Brand, is impressed with the projects.
“She put together a really nice five year plan on our parks. Pretty impressive for a small town,” he said of Repp.
The skate park’s infrastructure is over 20 years old and is in need of a full repair costing just shy of $21,000.
At Monday’s meeting, they distributed a public survey on their park concepts and received 113 votes out of 172 in support of their grand rail, skate bench, and pyramid plan.
The department is planning on replacing 1 to 3 features in the skate park over the next 3 to 5 years.
“We have a lot of kids that skateboard. And you know, people always are kind of against the kids skateboarding in downtown areas or someplace. Also, here they have their own place to go and experience the thrills of skateboarding,” said Brand.
“It's a wonderful opportunity for community members, not just kids to get out, have some recreational opportunities, stay active, and be healthy. So we're really excited as staff to be able to offer this to the community,” said Repp.
50% of the funding for their developments of Lakeside Park come from the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Grant from the DNR.
“We'll also be constructing the shelter, a boat ramp, hurricane and trail development. It'll be nice green space, and also [provide] lake access for community members or visitors to the area,” said Repp.
Repp noted their plans to remodel the restrooms and shelter in City Park East, one of Antigo’s most heavily-utilized parks, particularly after the installation of the James and Mary Draeger Family Splash Pad.
“There's a lot of really neat projects in here and you can kind of see what staff has been able to accomplish over the years and where they want to go moving forward and where the community wants to go, and it's all really positive. So it's really exciting, exciting to work for the city,” said Repp.
