Six years after a tornado, the City of Wyoming celebrates the reopening of Ideal Park

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

It has been six years since children played on its playground. It has been six years since family sat at the picnic tables. On Aug. 18, the City of Wyoming ended the six-year wait and officially reopening Kent County’s oldest park, Ideal Park.

In 2014, a tornado, straight-line winds, and flooding, damaged the park’s playground equipment, tennis and basketball courts and uprooted many of its trees, some of which were more than 100 years old.

“In a matter of seconds a park that was magnificent, majestic, mature was destroy,” said Doug Wustman, chair of the Wyoming Parks and Recreation Commission. “Ninety-eight percent of the canopy was laying on the ground and there was nothing but twisted, shredded, uprooted trees is all that you saw. The out buildings, the picnic shelters, the restrooms, everything was just gone in a matter of seconds.”

The Wyoming City team who helped to redesign Ideal Park with residents’ input. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

It was not just the park that was impacted by the storm, but the entire area.

“In 2014, the whole community was devastated and we had to hold off doing anything in Ideal Park until we could get the residences built in the area, said City of Wyoming Director of Community Services. The city spent $500,000 to remove the trees and debris from the park only to have flooding and another tornado in 2016.

“It has been a practice in patience for our residents,” Rynbrandt said. “As you can see our community is resilient and this park is a result of their commitment. The commitment of engaging in design so we could make sure that what is featured today really came about because it was what they wanted.”

The city spent more than $800,000, of which was a Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund grant of $508,000, reconstruction the park, located at 5843 Crippen Ave. SW. This included moving many of the amenities to the east side of the park along with improved traffic control for vehicle and pedestrian safety.

One of the unique features to Ideal Park’s playground are these all accessible swings. (WKTV/Joanne Bailey-Boorsma)

New amenities include restrooms, a shelter, and a playground that offers special new features.

“The playground is universally accessible,” Rynbrandt said. “We made a strong commitment that people of all abilities can come and play in our community.”

The playground features a tile form of the cushion-style playground surface that is similar to the one at Frog Hollow. The advantage of the tile is that the city can replace sections easily without having to replace the entire surface, Rynbrandt said.

At each of the city’s parks, the city tries to incorporate special elements that are unique to that park and for Ideal Park that includes modified swings, a climbing rope and a modified whirler.

Ideal Park also has a trailhead connecting to the interurban trail system that starts in Byron Center and goes through Kentwood and on into Grand Rapids.

There is excitement about reopening Ideal Park, Rynbrandt said, but also a little sadness in that the one item the city could not bring back was the 300-year-old trees that were the canopy of the park. However, the reopening of the park and the new amenities it offers will make new memories for residents today and tomorrow, Rynbrandt said.

“I am thankful to the people of the Ideal Park area for their patience and understanding because today we have a rebirth, we have a new parkThat they can enjoy for generations to come,” Wustman said. “2020 has been a rough year for everybody because of the pandemic environment we’re living in, so to see people laugh and even shed a tear at time, yeah I look forward to that. To life back to normal.”