By Lisa Carolin
Pierce Park was the meeting location for the Chelsea Parks Commission Aug. 6, and the main topic-progress on the Pierce Park Improvement Project.
So far, there has been some landscaping done along M-52, and there was a dead pine tree taken down not far from the parking lot, which is where a second gazebo will be constructed.
Members of the Parks Commission walked along the area where a pathway will be created, beginning near the entrance of St. Joseph Mercy Hospital near Will Johnson Drive. After the pathway is built, plantings will follow.
This fall, The Rock will be shifted about 15 feet to the north where it will have better visibility, and new landscaping will create a semicircle of bushes around it.
Parks Commission members also talked about removing the metal train play structure from Pierce Park because it is falling apart, and consolidating play elements for younger children in a single area as well as moving some of the existing swing sets.
By the end of 2019, City Manager John Hanifan says he expects the path and the new gazebo, as well as many of the plantings, to be completed in the park.
The next meeting of the Parks Commission will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 9 a.m. in City Council Chambers.
