NEWS PHOTO EMMA BENNETT
Poplar Mechanics and Niwa Crane remove a tree near the playground at Kiwanis Central Park on Wednesday, May 8, 2019. Three trees are being removed near the whale slide and one tree was removed near the basketball court because they have deteriorated and are considered to be over-mature.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Four huge poplar trees – including three beside a playground – are being cut down in Central Park this week, but the patrons of the stately park on the Southeast Hill are advancing plans for upgrades next summer.
Perry Bergum, the parks chair for the Kiwanis Club, told the News on Wednesday that removing trees is regrettable, and not related to park upgrades.
He wants Hatters to know plans are in the works to improve the two-square-block park by converting a portion to a more natural setting where kids can better use their imaginations as well as muscles.
“We’re just now finishing grant applications and working with a company on a design and budget,” said Bergum of the project that could go ahead in the spring of 2020.
The space, comprising a currently gravelled area with 60-year-old swing sets in the southwest corner, would feature large tree trunks, more boulders and other apparatus for youngsters to climb.
“There’s a lot of research that states (such a playground) leads to more activity and better play,” said Bergum.
“It would be the first in the city and there may be more areas of the city where it could be installed.”
It would be the latest improvement at the park, which is managed by the city parks department, while Kiwanis has made it a mission to care for the area, and raise funds for improvements.
The iconic whale slide in the southeast corner was repainted last year by the service club. Before that, a disc-golf course was installed and a remake of the wadding pool was completed by the city.
The basketball court has also been resurfaced.
That court is one site of a tree removal this week.
The park is one of the city’s oldest, and a release from the city’s parks department describes the huge poplars as “deteriorated and over mature” and in need of removal before limbs of trunk came down in wind.
Three trees in that condition near the slide were removed on Wednesday, forcing the closure of the slide and nearby playground.
Dave Genio, the superintendent of parks maintenance, said in a statement that the department plans to replant a variety of trees in their place this year.
Bergum said the loss of mature trees is sad, but part of the natural cycle.
“We’ve been aware for some time that there will be trees that have to come out just because of their life-span,” he said.
