Wheaton residents get update on Northside Park renovations

For all the hassle that Saturday's storms brought to the Chicago area, Wheaton city and park district leaders saw a glimmer of promise in the rain.

"It's a great day because now we can (all) see the conditions we're trying to avoid," Wheaton Park District Commissioner Dave Blankenship told a crowd of 30 people gathered inside a warming shelter in Northside Park.

One year after parks officials announced plans to push forward with park renovations, residents came out to get updated on progress and ask questions about how the work will affect them.

The park district has applied for permits with DuPage County and several state agencies for approval to dredge sections of the lagoon and fix erosion along its edges by installing native plants, parks Director Mike Benard said.

The work is expected to alleviate the kind of flooding problems that were on full display Saturday along Main Street, as police were called to help vehicles stalled in water. Nearby, the park's pond slowly was overflowing with rainwater.

"Much of the work is not very exciting," Benard said. "But it will eventually improve conditions at the lagoon and help relieve flooding along Main Street."

Both park district and city officials stressed the work at Northside Park, which could cost up to $10 million, will take place over the next three to five years.

The biggest chunk of that project involves annually dredging sediment from the bottom of the lagoon over each of the next five years to increase its depth.

More than 25 years have passed since initial plans were crafted to revamp Northside Park, but those changes never occurred.

The Wheaton Park District recently applied for more than $510,000 in grants to help pay for the renovation work.

"It's going to be a couple of years where the park is going to look like muck," said Phil Luetkehans, the park district's board president. "Our goal is to get it done and get it right the first time so we don't have to come back again."