Changes in store for Wick Park

By Sean Barron

Getting rid of undesirable barriers and having a section for musical shows were two ideas.

YOUNGSTOWN — If you’ve been to Wick Park lately, you likely have noticed the freshly planted and mulched rows of flowers near each of the park’s four corners.

Members of Youngstown CityScape were largely responsible for the plantings earlier this month, and the new additions are a segue to bigger changes and improvements to come for the park, some city and community leaders say. CityScape is a grassroots organization dedicated to the revitalization of Youngstown.

Ideas to restore and beautify the space were at the heart of Saturday’s two-hour Wick Park Revitalization Community Design Workshop at Park Vista Retirement Community, 1216 Fifth Ave. on the city’s North Side.

The park is surrounded by Elm Street as well as Fifth, Broadway and Park avenues.

Between 50 and 60 people attended the session, set up to provide updates on progress related to the park, and to give participants an opportunity to voice what they feel will be essential to its well-being and vitality.

“We have received a lot of support,” said Sharon Letson, CityScape’s executive director.

Work to fix some of the North Side park’s lighting has already started, with repairs to the rest expected within 20 to 30 days, noted Jason Whitehead, interim director of the city’s parks and recreation department. Repairs also are being made to the water fountain, and trees will be planted to replace those blown down in recent storms, he added.

Another speaker was Jim McKnight, a Cleveland landscape architect who took a recent tour of Wick Park and came up with recommendations to enhance its use and appeal.

Calling it “a terrific urban park and a terrific woodland,“ McKnight noted that some streets such as Broadway are wide, yet have no trees next to them. Within the oasis are some “redundant paths,” meaning, for example, that an exercise path and the sidewalk next to it are indistinguishable from each other, he said, adding that there are also too many dead or dying trees.

McKnight’s suggestions included making the front of the community center more defined for first-time visitors; spreading seating throughout; removing some unsightly barriers and guardrails; finding a more discreet location for trash bins; and redesigning a play area to make it easier for parents to supervise their youngsters.

Other ideas from the March 15 meeting were revisited, such as lifting restrictions regarding vendors, creating a dog park and adding programs for all seasons, noted Terry Schwarz of Kent State University‘s Urban Design Center of Northeast Ohio, who moderated the session.

Participants broke into two groups to brainstorm for additional ways they hope the park can be improved, including having smaller parking lots as opposed to one large one; forming public and private partnerships; creating an area for musical performances; scattering picnic tables; and having an area for wireless Internet access.

For more information or to post suggestions, go to www.defendyoungstown.com and click on the Wick Park Project link.

Preceding the workshop was a meeting in which Anthony S. Kobak of the Youngstown Planning Department announced that the city has become one of the latest Tree City USA communities in Ohio.

At that session, a series of computerized programs was introduced that are designed, among other things, to make the tracking and management of city trees more efficient and cost effective, and to quantify how the trees can save energy and reduce carbon dioxide.