HOWARD, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Pamperin Park reopened Saturday. The big iron gates were no longer closed, and that grabbed the attention of many driving by.
FOX 11 spoke to dozens of cars that came through just to get a look at the creek and playground.
David Baranczyk usually stops by a couple of times a week to relax and look at the water, but he hasn’t been able to the last month.
“From what I can tell, well, it looks pretty much the same.”
“Our goal was to get it back in shape,” said Matt Kriese with Brown County Parks. “The whole 25 acres were under water.”
He tells FOX 11 the quick March thaw caused the water to quickly melt and ice jams to divert the flow of the river right into the park.
“We had 2 foot of snow pack on the ground and we had over 3 feet of ice on duck creek.”
He says water, sand, and muck also covered the entire park, causing it to close for nearly a month for safety reasons.
“It was a lot of cleaning up the grass and removing debris and fixing railings and fixing little parts here and there.”
While the gates are now open Kriese says facilities inside still need to be repaired before they can be used.
“The bridge just has some structure-membering and some railings and things that need to get into place before we open that up as well. “
The buildings that are usually rented out for private events are also still closed, and the playground will be closed until fresh wood chips can be laid.
Kriese doesn’t have a time frame of when it will be done or a cost.
