(Chelsea Update would like to thank Bob Milbrodt for the information in this story.)
Last Monday, Chelsea Kiwanis heard from Joe Ziolkowski of the Main Street Park Alliance. He spoke to us about the progress on transforming the 3-acre former Federal Screw property into a multi-generational park.
The Alliance listened to all the community’s ideas for the park’s design, and incorporated them into the plans. Three groups of community members seemed to be the most in need of this project: teens/tweens, disabled folks, and senior citizens.
They finished remediation of the contaminated soil in May, and are close to finishing the utility work for the park’s features. Construction of the restrooms will soon begin.
Plans are to turn over the park to the city on June 1, 2026. It will be the most accessible park in Washtenaw County. In addition to the many features, (basketball court, skate park, climbing wall, quarter mile perimeter walking path, hammock grove, 170 trees), lighting is planned to be installed for those shorter daylight hours in fall and winter.
The Alliance would hope to have the restrooms open all during the day. As parking may be an issue, in addition to the 21 diagonal spots on Congdon Street, attempts are being made to use or purchase the 45 spots from Federal Screw located behind Perky Pantry.
The project’s total cost is $10 million dollars over 5 years. 80% of the total has been pledged already, leaving the remainder to be raised through outstanding grant requests and generous donations from the community.
We were happy to donate proceeds from our recent golf outing for this worthy endeavor.
