New Sycamore park features pickleball, soccer, playground

SYCAMORE – City and state officials gathered this week for a ribbon cutting in Sycamore for Reston Ponds Park, Sycamore Park District’s newest, publicly accessible outdoor recreation space.

Children enjoyed the park’s pickleball court and playground while Park District officials and State Rep. Jeff Keicher, R-Sycamore, gathered Thursday to celebrate the opening.

Park Board President Bill Kroeger said it took a long time for the park district to acquire the 12-acres of land for Reston Ponds Parl, and was happy to see the first phase constructed.

“This was probably going back to the early 2000s, when the whole [Reston Ponds] development first started and we just had a hard time acquiring this property from the developer. Took many, many years to finally get it, and once we did get the property, then we were able to apply for our state grant. [The] grant came through and then we were able to design and build a park,” Kroeger said.

Sycamore Park District was awarded a $240,300 Open Space Land Acquisition and Development Grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in July 2022, for the first phase of design and construction of Reston Ponds Park.

That phase, which was celebrated Thursday, included a playground, pickleball court, small loop trail, picnic shelter, soccer field, native landscape, educational signs and a parking lot.

Keicher said DNR grants are among his favorite to help give out as an elected official as a state representative.

“Parks are what make communities home. You consistently look at surveys about why people choose to live in certain communities – it all centers around the parks. And this community, for too long, didn’t have it, so kudos to the park district for stepping up and making this happen with the OSLAD grant application, and getting it done. It’s an amazing stewardship of what we have for our community,” Keicher said.

Park District Executive Director Jonelle Bailey said the park, situated next to Parkside Drive and Becker Place, will give the district new options to expand its services.

“I think that we have a great opportunity here to expand services to the community. I know that this park has been on the docket for a long time, and that the community has really been looking forward to having something here, so I’m very excited that we got it started,” Bailey said.

She also said it’ll be about a year before the district can apply for another grant from the state that could fund the next phase of the park’s development.

“There is another phase to this. There’s going to be more amenities out here. It’s pretty bare, right now, but with the phase two, it’s going to help fill that in,” Kroeger said. “[And there will] still be a lot of, a lot of open areas for ball games or bigger areas to play, and a large path going around the perimeter of the property.”