Nuts & Bolts: October 2023

Nuts & Bolts: October 2023

Each day, our Parks and Planning team digs into a busy schedule of essential work across the Wilmette Park District’s parks and facilities. You may not catch all the exciting things–big and small–that our crews work hard to make happen, whether it’s horticultural and landscape work, seasonal maintenance, or property improvements. Nuts & Bolts is your behind-the-scenes overview of projects around the District.

Parks & Planning Department Updates

Paddle On! 
The Wilmette Platform Tennis Club Expansion Project is almost complete, thanks to our hard-working Parks and Planning team! The six original paddle courts received fresh surfaces, and two additional brand-new courts opened on October 2, ready for play. To better contain the spread of light outside of the club area, light fixtures with more efficient shields have been installed on all courts.

The expanded Paddle Hut is sooo close to opening! Final work is coming together fast: interior and exterior painting is done; tiling is done; and cabinetry is being installed. We anticipate the hut will be warm, toasty and ready to welcome chilly paddlers in November. Around the club area, our Parks staff installed plantings on the east side of the courts and on the berm. The reconfigured parking area with new concrete curbs is complete, too.

Portal Projects Performed Perfectly 
In September, our Parks and Planning team installed automatic sliding doors at the main entrance of the Community Recreation Center! This was no small feat; our Building crew overcame many wrinkles and snags and the portal is now practically perfect. And before that, they replaced the west door for the Early Childhood Center.

Pickleball and Tennis at Community Playfields 
The new Pickleball/Tennis courts are coming along: leveling work done, underlayment installed, and paving work complete. Net posts are in, and color coating on the courts is underway. Stay tuned for an opening date!

Buttoning up the Tennis Lights at Gillson 
At Gillson Park, our Building crew recently installed push buttons and timers on the tennis court lights. What a smart, energy-saving project! The lights, only operational from dusk to 10:30 p.m. daily, now only turn on when a player pushes a button on the court. A strobe light alerts players ten minutes before the timer is set to switch off the lights. If needed, players can push the button again to keep their match going.

Parks and Planning Paves, Paints and Builds Bridges
 Is it fall? Then it’s paving maintenance season! Pavement was replaced at Howard Park and Keay Nature Center parking lots, and the lots at Centennial Recreation Complex and Wilmette Golf Club were seal-coated all smooth and shiny.

Parks and Planning crew work is never done! Crews also recently repaired a bridge on the Wilmette Golf Course’s 8th hole. And, they brightened up a few rooms at the CRC with fresh paint.

Parks Feel the Love
The Parks crew opened a temporary access path to Langdon Beach on September 1, to the delight of many Labor Day weekend visitors! Also in September and early October, they completed the following activities:

set up all our fall athletics fields,
completed playground surfacing repairs,
pruned and removed dead and declining trees,
worked on the West Park turf field,
installed a memorial bench,
fertilized athletic fields (with organic fertilizer),
pruned trees and shrubs,
added plantings to Thornwood and Vattmann Parks, and
weeded beds all over the District.

Last, here’s a fab collab: on September 8, our Parks crew hosted a workday at Mallinckrodt Park with Openlands TreeKeepers, where they accepted delivery of 44 fall trees (53 were planted in the Spring, bringing the 2023 new tree tally to 97)! On October 27, expert pruners from Openlands will join our crew for a tree pruning workday at Gillson Park.