Zickuhr Park proposed redevelopment design shared with residents

MT. MORRIS – About 40 Mt. Morris residents gathered at the Village Hall Aug. 1 to hear about the plan for redeveloping Zickuhr Park with the help of a state grant.

Project components include a new picnic shelter, additions to the existing play structure – including Americans with Disabilities Accessible-compliant components – redoing the half-court basketball area, game tables, a pollinator garden with interpretative signage and a dog park.

The village of Mt. Morris plans to apply for a $150,000 Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The grant would be a 50-50 match, meaning the total project cost would be $300,000 with the village paying half using American Rescue Plan Act funds.

“When we first got started, we were going [as a] distressed community, which would be eligible for 100% forgiveness up to $600,000,” Village Parks and Recreation Trustee Jim Hopkins said. “Now, we’ve just found out last week that we’re not on the distressed community list.”

As a result, the Zickuhr Park redevelopment costs had to be scaled back from the originally planned budget of $632,000 – of which the village would have been responsible for $32,000.

Mt. Morris was listed as a distressed community for fiscal 2023, but came off the list because equalized assessed values increased, Hopkins said. With the village’s change in status, it now is eligible to have up to 50% of the OSLAD grant forgiven, he said.

The list of distressed communities came out July 26, about halfway through the application period, Village Treasurer Jorden Sasscer said. That was frustrating, because it didn’t allow them to plan appropriately, she said.

If awarded the grant, the village has to commit to installing all elements they include in its grant request, although the exact design of those things is allowed to be adjusted, Hitchcock Design Group Senior Associate Monica Goshorn-Maroney said. Grant applications are scored on a points system, she said.

“A big part of this grant is getting community input from people like yourselves that both shows your support of this project, shows that it’s fulfilling a need and brings in any other feedback,” Goshorn-Maroney told attendees.

Community members’ questions and comments included concerns about a lack of parking near the park, and what that would mean for adjacent homeowners; split feelings about having a dog park, especially one that doesn’t have separate areas for larger and smaller dogs; requests to add seating on the west side of the park where people could go to watch the sunset; and a desire to have sturdier “board swings” that would be easier for senior citizens to utilize.

Hopkins emphasized that there is potential for this redevelopment to be a “phase 1″ and that more could be added in the future as additional funding becomes available.

“We can still tweak this plan,” Hopkins said of the proposed design. “We have till the end of August to submit it [to the IDNR].”

He and other village officials will review all the feedback on the plan as it was presented and make adjustments as needed, Hopkins said. The Mt. Morris Village Board will have to vote on the final plan before the application is submitted to the IDNR.