Grandview Heights’s Pierce Field and Wyman Woods Park are getting major makeovers following community input and support.
Pierce Field opened more than 80 years ago as a playground area for Stevenson Elementary School. The park is in need of renovations, and numerous community meetings have helped produce a plan for the work.
“We have talked about and planned park renovations for many years now, from the early planning committees and fundraising of former Parks and Recreation Director Don Bell in the 1990s, to the parks master planning process of 2006 and 2007. It is gratifying to now be making the plans and dreams come true for Pierce Field, and, next year, at Wyman Woods,” says Grandview Parks and Recreation Director Sean Robey.
The playground at Pierce Field was renovated with a rubber surfacing for safety. Decorative steel fencing surrounds the park, the tennis courts were improved and the athletic fields feature new dugouts and more efficient lighting that limits glare on the field.
The park also sports a new building for concessions, restrooms and added space. The new shelter house, expected to be completed in November, replaces the three older houses that are in poor condition.
Pierce Field was closed this summer due to the renovations, but reopened to the public Aug. 16. The park will host a ribbon-cutting grand reopening over Memorial Day weekend 2014 to kick off the baseball and softball summer seasons.
Elford Construction was tasked with $1.1 million in renovations – which fell below the city’s cost estimates.
Wyman Woods Park is in the beginning stages of planning and design for big improvements as well. A successful city bond sale and a gift of $100,000 from W.W. Williams Co. is funding the $1.5 million renovation.
Construction will begin by Nov. 20, Robey says. The park will be closed for 30 days and will reopen while the construction is on hold until spring.
The renovations begin with the expansion of the parking lot. The lot will have a new turnaround to make exiting safer, an unloading area and more spaces.
Robey is most excited about the new “naturalistic playground,” which will include the traditional wooden deck with many added features such as boulders, a tree log balance beam, slides that utilize the 15-foot hill with a rubber safety surface and Grandview’s first-ever rope climbing system.
Wyman Woods is also adding “storm tech chambers” that will be installed under the athletic fields. These plastic tubes under the park grounds will allow rain water to “percolate down to the ground water” instead of flooding the park grounds and parking lot. Robey says this process uses no energy and the water will not flow into local streams.
A new pathway for walking, biking or inline skating will be in a figure-eight design, offering the option to walk only half the park or the entire loop.
The final installment at Wyman Woods Park is the added feature of the W.W. Williams House, a shelter house erected in honor of the company’s donation. The house will include a kitchenette and a larger bathroom for handicapped access.
The shelter house will be open by late 2014, but the athletic fields will not be ready for use until spring 2015, when Robey hopes for a grand reopening just in time for the park’s 60th anniversary during Memorial Day weekend.
Nathan Rhodes is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at laurand@cityscenemediagroup.com.
