In 2020, the village leased four of its pocket parks to the Park District of Forest Park. Since then, the park district has updated playgrounds on Rieger Park, Popelka Park and Remembrance Park. At the small, unnamed park at 1138 Lathrop Ave., playground equipment has been removed to create a bit of green space.
But there’s a fifth park in town that wasn’t included in the symbolic $1, 99-year lease.
Veterans Park at 631 Circle Ave. is maintained by the village, and the same is true for the dog park across the street at 632 Circle Ave. While a sixth-grade resident successfully raised money for canine-friendly playground equipment for the dog park in 2022, Veterans Park hasn’t seen an upgrade in years.
“It’s kind of not a priority at the moment, unfortunately,” Village Administrator Rachell Entler told the Review. She said it’s because of the village’s tight budget, though she agrees Veterans Park could use a facelift. “I would love nothing more than to be able to upgrade that park.”
Entler said she thinks the village still manages the Circle Avenue dog park and Veterans Park properties because it leases them from the Illinois Department of Transportation, which owns the land.
When Entler was on the village council as commissioner of public property about 8 years ago, she said staff was budgeting to redo Veterans Park. And when village staff couldn’t update the playground at the Howard Mohr Community Center because of the degrading water reservoir underneath it, they considered renovating Veterans Park instead. But both times discussions were foiled by cash constraints.
“When money is tight across the board, things like a new playground are the first thing to get chopped off of a list,” Entler said. She added of Veterans Park updates, “As long as it is not a safety hazard, it’s always kind of in the back of my mind.”
