On Veterans Day, Nov. 11, locals will gather to celebrate the opening of a renovated Remembrance Park at 7341 Randolph St.
Following just over four months of construction, the updated Remembrance Park features a splash pad, pavilion, bocci court and new playground equipment.
“It’s a very densely populated area, and we wanted to give the neighbors a backyard,” said Jackie Iovinelli, the park district’s executive director.
While much of the old Remembrance Park has been updated with a brand new look, the stone memorial, which honors local police and firefighters who died in the line of duty, was largely untouched. The name of a first responder who died in 2021 was added to the memorial, and the area around it was restructured to showcase the monument.
“Before it was just kind of there, placed into the park,” Iovinelli said. “We rearranged some things, and now have two sidewalks leading up to it as more of a memorial.”
On Monday, there will be a rededication and blessing of the memorial. The Proviso Mathematics and Science Academy band will play the battle anthem for each branch of the military and the national anthem.
Then, Chief of Police Ken Gross and Fire Chief Lindsey Hankus will talk about the history of the memorial and each fallen first responder. A priest from St. Bernardine Church will give a blessing, and officials will lay down a memorial wreath on the monument.
Finally, Tim Gillian, president of the park district’s board of commissioners, will open the park.
But Remembrance Park’s Veterans Day opening is only a soft launch, since it will be too cold to turn on the new splash pad.
“We’re going to go ahead and open it because the play equipment, and everything on site, is playable,” Iovinelli said.
Next spring, there will be an official opening, when the splash pad is turned on and the last of the benches and picnic tables are in place.
While Iovinelli said Remembrance Park’s opening is about a month behind what the park district was hoping for, much of that can be chalked up to a slightly delayed permit from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago before construction could start.
Otherwise, Iovinelli said there were no challenges with the project. An interesting discovery, though, was finding the foundation for the old Forest Park Village Hall underneath the park. Rather than removing the foundation, the Elgin-based Clauss Brothers cut square holes in it, where trees were then planted.
“We’re excited to open the park, to do this on Veterans Day and the whole meaning behind this park. We’re excited for the neighbors,” Iovinelli said. “I’m excited for them to enjoy.”
The last of the pocket parks
In the fall of 2022, the park district applied for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant in order to fund Remembrance Park’s construction.
Naperville-based Hitchcock Design Group helped design Remembrance Park. Locals also got a chance to give feedback at a community input meeting in 2022.
Now that Remembrance Park’s renovations have been completed, the park district has revamped three of the four pocket parks that the village transferred to them in 2020. Popelka Park opened last summer, and Rieger Park opened in May.
The last pocket park, on Roosevelt Road and Lathrop Avenue, is unnamed and quite small. Iovinelli describes its location off an apartment building in an alleyway of sorts.
“It didn’t make sense,” she said of the space, which had aged, moldy playground equipment.
Iovinelli said the park district did some research and talked to people around the neighborhood, who said the lot was largely used as a place for people who are unhoused to sleep.
“If this is a place for people to sit, relax, let’s just make it that,” Iovinelli said. “Why are we forcing a playground into a space when we have a playground two blocks that way?”
So earlier this month, public works employees helped the park district start removing the playground equipment. The park district plans to level out the lot and plant new grass in the next week or so. Though benches may be added, the park district doesn’t plan to replace any of the playground equipment.
Iovinelli said the park district will remove a temporary fence surrounding the lot come spring, when the grass seed has taken. Then, all four pocket parks will be completed.
“We’ve connected the community,” Iovinelli said. “We’ve built beautiful parks for people to combat that loneliness and social anxiety and just meet your neighbors, discover a park, and discover a neighborhood.”
Remembrance Park’s soft opening is at 7341 Randolph St. on Nov. 11 at 11 a.m.