Marilla Park in Streator could get 2 new picnic shelters

The picnic shelters at Marilla Park in Streator are aging and becoming worn.

The city is looking at replacing two shelters — of the seven at the park — using some of its COVID-19 relief funds, City Manager David Plyman told the Park Board on Wednesday. The kits to erect the new shelters are about $25,000, Plyman said.

Streator High School vocational students may be asked to help build the shelters.

Installing electricity and updating water flow also may be part of the project, Plyman said.

The shelters are popular destinations in the summer for gatherings, with most of them filled during peak hours of the weekend. Plyman said replacing existing infrastructure is a good use for one-time revenues, such as the COVID-19 relief money, noting the city also may look into upgrades at Plumb Pavilion in City Park.

Ellen Vogel, Community Health Engagement Program Manager for OSF Center for Health in Streator, told the Park Board the Live Well Streator committee is seeking a grant from Illinois American Water for two drinking water fountains to be installed in Marilla Park. The fountains would be similar to the multi-tiered one installed at Central Park and one soon to be installed at City Park near Paul’s Pad.

The city also is seeking a $185,355 grant Open Space Land Acquisition and Development grant with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to pay for improvements to the pond area of Marilla Park. The project would improve parking around the Marilla Park pond and install gabion baskets on the south edge of the pond to further improve fishing and ice skating access. Dirt was dredged recently from the pond thanks to volunteers from the International Union of Operating Engineers 150. Dredging is the process of scooping out mud, weeds and garbage from a body of water’s bed in order to make it deeper.

The grant application at Marilla Park is the second the city is seeking. Another request was for $131,737.50 to buy land adjacent to the Vermilion River, to the north of the Oakley Avenue bridge, in an effort to install a canoe launch and network a floating path with the Hopalong Cassidy Canoe Launch. Plyman said the city should receive an answer within the next few months on those grants.

As far as the shelters, no official action has been taken and the council would have to approve the expenditures, but the project remains in discussion stages.