The Park District of Forest Park has begun renovations at Remembrance Park
Starting June 24, workers began demolishing everything at Remembrance Park, except the memorial. When the park reopens in the fall, it will feature new playground equipment, a splash pad and a pavilion.
According to Jackie Iovinelli, the park district’s executive director, the new park will also include aspects that follow accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Both a merry-go-round, called the Miracle Whirl, and a swing can be ridden in a wheelchair. The park’s mulch will be replaced with synthetic turf, which is cleaner, easier to maintain and beneficial for children with sensory disabilities, Iovinelli said.
The stone memorial, honoring Forest Park police and firefighters who have died in the line of duty, will remain untouched. Workers, however, will reconstruct the bricks surrounding the memorial in the southeast corner of the park to provide a clearer entrance to it. And two flag poles in the park will be moved closer to the memorial.
Additional names of fallen Forest Park police and fire fighters will be added to the pathway leading to the memorial.
In the park district’s Remembrance Park renderings, the synthetic turf incorporates a large American flag. But that changed to standard green turf following feedback from residents.
“It seemed a little brighter than the neighbors were looking for,” Iovinelli said. The red-white-and-blue aspect will instead be included around the splash pad, where blue stars will decorate the ground.
Renovating the last large pocket park
To fund Remembrance Park’s construction, the park district applied for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant in the fall of 2022. They received $424,000 in the spring of 2023, which will cover just under half of renovation costs.
The park district will pay the other half of the cost from its capital budget, although its portion is about 18% more expensive than planned because of the increased cost of labor and materials.
“A lot has changed,” Iovinelli said. “The bids came in a little bit higher.”
At a park district board meeting in March, the board awarded the bid to rebuild Remembrance Park to Elgin-based Clauss Brothers. The contractors, who also constructed Rieger Park, were the lowest bidder among four other contractors by almost $100,000.
Naperville-based Hitchcock Design Group helped design Remembrance Park. The park district has worked with the designers since they took over some pocket parks from the village, Iovinelli said.
“They helped us from the very beginning,” Iovinelli said. “Hitchcock, years and years ago, actually already had some ideas with the pocket parks around town.”
Feedback also came during a community input meeting in the fall of 2022.
“It’s a very densely populated neighborhood,” Iovinelli said of the area surrounding Remembrance Park. “They wanted us to bring the backyard to them, so that they can enjoy all those amenities that your backyard would offer.”
Components that people requested included new playground equipment, a splash pad and ADA-accessible components.
Remembrance Park’s renovations come as the park district works to revamp the four pocket parks that it took over from the village in 2020.
“I’m driving around town thinking, ‘Why do these parks look like this?’” Iovinelli previously told the Review about the parks’ outdated equipment and mulch overgrown with weeds.
So, the park district got to work on revamping the parks. A newly renovated Popelka Park opened last summer. And after nearly four years of permitting and construction, Rieger Park opened in May.
The last pocket park to be renovated is unnamed, Iovinelli said, and the smallest of the four. Off of Roosevelt Road and Lathrop Avenue, a park about the size of two parking spaces may be updated down the road.
“It’s really not used very much,” Iovinelli said. “It’s probably just going to be a very simple, grass, bench type-of-space.”
Remembrance Park, the last of the larger pocket parks that the park district is renovating, will, hopefully, open by fall, Iovinelli said. Visitors may get to use the splash pad, depending on how warm the weather is by the time construction is completed.
Iovinelli said she hopes Forest Park residents use Remembrance Park as a place to play and relax. She said anyone who has questions about the park should reach out to the park district.
“We just hope that the families have a place to go to meet your neighbors and picnic and enjoy the playground,” Iovinelli said. “A park brings a neighborhood together, so that’s what we’re hoping for.”
The park is located at 7341 Randolph St.