Sheboygan residents across the City are reacting to the most recent development in the process to make upgrades at Evergreen Park.
That development came in the form of a revised trail improvement concept plan from Sheboygan County Cycling (SCC) that was approved by the Sheboygan Public Works Committee earlier this week.
Those reacting over the past week include individuals within the Save Evergreen Park group, such as Mike Scharinger and Robert Lyons. Scharinger and Lyons are longtime Sheboygan residents who live within close proximity to the park.
Scharinger told SeehaferNews.com, “My first impression of the revised plan was that I was pleased to see that they had the asphalt pump track and the advanced skills zone on the south edge of the park.”
He added, “Those were probably the number one and number three points of concern within the community.”
Lyons was also pleased with some changes, but felt it was not necessarily what they had hoped.
“I think they did a nice job of adjusting the plan to take out as little as possible to still get it passed,” he admitted. “I think the other two zones that they did eliminate, if they wouldn’t have eliminated them, there was no way they would have been able to pass it.”
Both Lyons and Scharinger agreed that they appreciated that SCC was able to compromise with the plan that they had initially put forward.
Scharinger told us, “My feeling is that those compromises came in the areas where they were strongly hearing from elected leaders.” He continued to say, “Based on what elected leaders were hearing from their constituents, SCC was receptive to what they heard from the City, and they compromised there.”
However, while they liked the compromise, Save Evergreen Park also felt like there were still some concerns that had gone unaddressed.
Those include the inclusion of the children’s bike playground next to the Shaw Family Playground, no environmental assessment prior to dirt being moved, and no current plans for oversight from anyone other than SCC itself.
Ideally, for them, an oversight committee would be created containing members of SCC, community members, and City Alders, most notably Ryan Menzer, who presides over the district in which Evergreen Park falls.
On behalf of the Save Evergreen Park group, Lyons said, “I would like to thank all the citizens of the community. I’d like to actually thank SCC, they’ve obviously had to work very hard as well, and the Alderpersons. This is a monumental project for the City of Sheboygan. I don’t think they thought this was going to be as big a deal as it is, and it turns out to be one of the biggest deals in 10 years.”
As of now, it is uncertain when the revised concept plan will go in front of the Common Council with a recommendation of approval from the Public Works Committee.
More information about the group Scharinger and Lyons belong to can be found by visiting the Save Evergreen Park Facebook page
