Case Date:

1/16/2019

Hi, I contacted the city a few weeks ago regarding the status of Park Ridge Park and the materials on areas around the park and shelter in that park. In that note, I suggested cleaning up the debris in the park so as to prevent having to mitigate the problems caused by leaving them over the winter. The past two years, erosion mitigation was done on the park and it occurred to me that if the debris were removed, their would be less work in the spring to get the park back to the way it was at the beginning of fall. That suggestion was passed on to Dave Williams and I have not yet heard anything back from the parks department. I would like to know what the plans are for park with regards to debris removal. I am concerned now that since the true winter has begun and the city leaf removal is over, the debris will now remain in place all winter, hopefully to be removed soon enough in the spring such that only minimal work will have to be done in the spring. Perhaps if I had none that Parks would not be able to handle the debris removal, we could have organized a neighborhood effort to take care of the problem but it seems like that time has passed. To be clear, I really appreciate the responsiveness the Parks Department has had to suggestions and concerns about the Park Ridge Park and no doubt all the other parks. The erosion mitigation efforts conducted over the last two years did have a very positive effect and the park, the neighborhood and the city are all better for them. I am sure that something will get worked out this time as well and look forward to hearing what the plan is going forward for our wonderful, small and highly shaded park. Thank you.

Case Date:

12/7/2018

First - thank you for how responsive the department has been to our observations about Park Ridge Park. We really appreciate it! Park Ridge has a density of plants in and around it and is a relatively small park. As such, the amount of debris that can accumulate on the park compared to its size is quite high. We have witnessed that this debris tends to remain over the winter and well into spring if it isn't removed. We have seen that this eventually causes problems as the debris prevents grass from overwintering well and regrowing in the spring. This leads to bare spots (especially since the park is pretty all sloped except for the build in structures) leading to erosion. The Parks Department has worked diligently to mitigate these erosion issues through sowing grass seed, putting down straw mats, etc. This has been effective at at least stopping the erosion. However, I wonder if these mitigation efforts will have to be repeated next spring given the amount of debris in park. I suggest removing the debris now to hopefully prevent future problems and accompanying efforts to fix those problems. Please let us know what you think and thanks again for your responsiveness and hard work at making Park Ridge and Bloomington a great place to live and work. Cheers, John

Case Date:

9/18/2016

The water fountain at Park Ridge East Park is continuously running.