An estimated $560,000 in improvements at Kiwanis Park in Brookfield will begin in November, with completion of the project expected by next summer. But with construction somewhat at the mercy of the weather until next spring, use of the park may be limited for most of the summer.
Assistant Village Manager Keith Sbiral, who is the village’s director of planning and building, said he expects that “with sod restoration, the park closure will likely go well into the late summer” and that the Brookfield Special Events Commission is expecting to host a grand opening event in the fall of 2014.
That means popular annual traditions such as the Battle of the Bands, summer concerts, and the Fourth of July picnic will be altered or relocated to accommodate construction and the establishment of new landscaping.
Family picnics at the Kiwanis Park pavilion, an area surrounded by proposed improvements, look like they will be scrapped next summer, said Mary Pezdek, program coordinator for the Brookfield Recreation Department.
“We’re just afraid we won’t know the stage of development,” said Pezdek. “We’re a little afraid to do picnics. It might be our biggest upheaval this summer.”
While the Fourth of July parade will go ahead as usual, the village-wide picnic following the parade may relocated to Jaycee/Ehlert Park or another location in the village, she said. The summer outdoor concert series may also be relocated to another park.
Meanwhile, the Battle of the Bands may be relocated to the parking lot behind village hall, since the band shell and all of the new landscaping to be done in that area won’t be ready for use by the end of May 2014.
The rec department’s summer camp will also go ahead as planned, although outdoor activities will likely take place at locations other than Kiwanis Park next summer. The work will not affect the use of the two baseball fields.
Brookfield this week opened the bidding period for the work, which will include improvements to the commuter parking lot, basketball court, and installation of a new band shell, horseshoe and bean bag courts, a seven-hole disc golf course and two sand volleyball courts and a paved trail with three fitness stations.
Most of the improvements will occur between Overholt Field and the oak savanna. The improvements include new landscaping and removal/relocation of some trees.
