SENECA – It’s been a long wait for the Seneca Park and Recreation Board, but the group finally received word last week from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources that the OSLAD Grant the board received in 2014 has been reinstated.
Board Chairman Fran Kasten said that soon after learning the board was approved for the Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant, the state suspended the release of the funds in early 2015 because of the budget crisis.
“We were given the $214,000 matching grant at the end of 2014 and then told it was put on hold in 2015,” Kasten said. “It was just released last week.”
The grant is being used for the development of a new 15.68-acre park at the west end of Williams Street in Seneca that was recently named Graves Family Park.
“There is about 40 acres of farmland and we were able to purchase over 15 acres of it adjacent to the I & M trail,” Kasten said. “Location was important to us.”
He said the park is the largest piece of ground the board could acquire and will be home to baseball and softball diamonds, as well as a soccer field in its first phase.
“This is huge for the community. It’s a reality that has come true,” Kasten said in a news release. “We are elated that we can now move forward on a dream of past and present board members. Being a small community, this grant is ‘gold’ for us. Even with the receipt of the grant, completion of the park will be done in phases as additional funds become available. We want to give the community a park they will be proud of for many years. Our goal all along was to ‘not let this dream die.’ ”
He added that the board will begin working with Teska Associates in moving forward with site preparation of the various phases to include development of a baseball, softball and soccer fields, along with parking, security lighting, shelter to include a concession and restrooms, playground equipment, splash park, baseball lighting, fitness trail and landscaping.
A goal for breaking ground is set for spring 2017.
Naming of the park
The Seneca Park and Recreation Board has chosen the name of Graves Family Park as it moves forward in development of the new park, according to a news release.
Kasten said there were several suggestions for names and one fact remained evident – the name “Graves” should be included. He said the Graves family has been a part of the community for many years, and continues to support the area and the board’s endeavor to make the idea of a new park a reality.
“I have many fond memories of my childhood in Seneca – playing tennis on the Dupont courts and watching softball under the lights in an open field, now Crotty Park – and even more of raising our three children here. Our town is safe, it has good schools and everyone knows each other,” Bill Graves, former Lion’s Club member and longtime owner of Graves Lumber Co., said in the release.
Seneca’s character, he added, was shaped in part by the tireless efforts of his father, Forrest Graves. Known simply as Forty, he was described by Dr. W.E “Doc” Coulter, the revered town physician for 40 years, as “a dynamo of human energy” who “lived more and accomplished more in 51 years than most men could do in a 100 years.”