OTTAWA — Mike Hermiller and Kevin Wolke, employees with Kahle Electric of Ottawa, were completing installation of new lights and poles Wednesday in Ottawa Memorial Park.
The old lights were either dim, bent or had been vandalized, said Park Board President Brad Leis.
“Lighting has been the one thing we have talked about for a long time,” Leis said. “We had a little vandalism, not a lot but some. Lighting the park in the evening and at night is a bit of a deterrent.”
The old lights were 14 feet tall and the bulbs were high-pressure sodium lights, Hermiller said. The new light poles are 20 feet tall and the bulbs are modern.
“The new lights are LED,” he said. “They’ll burn brighter and be more efficient. LED lights cover a lot more area and are a lot less maintenance.”
Replacing park lighting is just one project in a list of overhauls that have been done to Memorial Park recently, Leis said. A new concession stand and large electric scoreboard were recently added to a ball diamond. The board is working on overhauling the diamond near the East 11th Street entrance, which included replacing the dirt and adding new sod to the outfield, Leis said.
The board also has plans to raise the backstops on the front diamond and the T-ball diamond, he said.
“This park is really a community park,” Leis explained local Eagle scouts and the Ottawa-Glandorf Rotary Club have helped with remodeling the park.
Zac Bellman, a Boy Scout, made the green containers for the plastic garbage cans around the park, he said.
The Ottawa-Glandorf Rotary Club raised $68,000 and built new restrooms.
The new lights cost $58,000 and the baseball diamond upgrade costed $15,000, funds that were shifted to Ottawa Parks and Recreation from a project on Meadowglen Drive. With the construction of the Tractor Supply Co. store happening on that street, it was decided any roadwork done on Meadowglen Drive would have been undone by the heavy equipment being used, he said.
The Ottawa Park Board was given permission to use the money for park improvement projects, and the work on Meadowglen is delayed until next year when the construction of the store is complete.
“I have a personality where I hate hearing people talk about doing stuff and not doing it,” Leis said. “If you have the money to do it, just do it.”
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