Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
CONNOR HOTCHKISS, 5, left, plays near the Monkey-bars, as Hayden Recla, 7, climbs up to the slide, while Henry Hotchkiss, 2, is pushed on the swing by Austin Recla, 5, and Ashley Wiitanen, 17, sits on a swing supervising all of the kids at a new park located behind the Barber Field centerfield fence in the Yale Location of Bessemer, on Wednesday afternoon.
By CHARITY SMITH
Bessemer - A new park with a playground for kids was recently built behind the centerfield fence of Barber Field in the Yale Location of Bessemer and has opened to rave reviews.
"I think it's wonderful especially with all the kids in the neighborhood. I know my grandkids really enjoy it, every night we got to take them down there," said Paulette Baldwin.
According to Bessemer city manager Charly Loper, city officials started looking into the idea of placing a park in Yale after discussions in April 2019 about how to best use grant funding from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority. She said they were looking for areas that had a lot of children and not much of a play area, and Yale came up as an area where it was needed. She said a survey of residents revealed they were quite excited about the idea.
Loper said that they were hoping to put the park together last fall, but the equipment arrived just before the snow, and the pandemic has caused some delays in putting it up this year. The city was hoping to have volunteers put the equipment together, but because of the risk of COVID-19, the equipment was put together by the city's department of public works.
Prior to the park, some residents told the Daily Globe that when they were growing up in the area they used to have to just play in the field or go in the school and slide down the fire escape.
"It's nice that there is a park. When we were kids we played in that haunted old school," said Susan Wiitanen.
Joann Farrar who lives right across Woosley Street from the park said that it is much safer to have the park there for the kids, because with the baseball games, at Barber Field there is a lot of traffic and that people would worry about kids running across the street and possibly getting hit by a car. "This way it will keep them off the road," she said.
The park is set quite a ways back off the road and is only accessible by foot. It features a jungle gym with monkey-bars and a slide along with a swing set, all of which is placed on top of a bed of wood-chips. Next to the playground are two picnic tables and a park bench for parents to be able to supervise their kids or for family picnics.
"I think it's great. My great-grandkids come here, so that's something new for them to do. ... When they came around and said they were going to put one (park) up I went 'yes' because otherwise my great-grandkids are sitting here with their squirt-guns and I'm wet by the time they leave," Farrar.
"They really enjoy it there. Even though they have one here (backyard playground), they love to go out of the yard to play," said Baldwin of the new playground and her great-grandsons.
"I think it's great cause there are a ton of kids around here. If that had been here when I was young I know we would have loved it," said Brooke Recla, of St. Paul Park, Minnesota, formerly of Ironwood.
"I'm sure they're going to have a lot more (kids) down there, once the word gets out that it is here," said Baldwin.
Loper said the city donated all the labor and the grant from MSHDA paid for the bench and picnic tables, the swing, and the slides, along with the concrete that was needed to install the equipment. She said that the jungle gym and the wood chips were donated by Bessemer Plywood corporation.
"It's fun. I like it (the park) because there's lots to do," said Hayden Recla, 7, of Minnesota, who is in town visiting his grandmother. Hayden said he liked the swing the best, while his 5-year-old sister Austin said she liked the monkey bars.
