It’s been more than three weeks since the July 15 tornadoes hit Kewanee, and work is still going on to get all the city’s parks open again.
Much progress has been made at Windmont, Baker and Chautauqua parks, where numerous trees blew over and some buildings and other park property were damaged. But there is still work to be done.
The inner drive at Baker Park was closed for a couple of weeks to give crews time to remove trees that had fallen over the road.
Park District Executive Director Andy Dwyer said clearing the road so it could be traveled safely was a major undertaking. But as of this week, the drive is open again.
Much work has been done at Chautauqua, where numerous trees and branches were downed by the storm. (Curiously, some dead trees in the park were still standing after the tornado felled nearby trees.)
A crew was finishing up at Chautauqua on Wednesday, Dwyer said, and was to move to Windmont to join in the recovery work there.
Windmont was perhaps the hardest-hit park, with several trees blown across the walking path around the lagoon. A number of structures in the park were damaged by fallen trees, electric wires were downed and falling trees and limbs did extensive damage to the fence along Beach Street.
Dwyer said crews were still working on removing tree limbs that were threatening to fall onto the walking path, making it unsafe. He said he hoped that could be taken care of, and the park reopened, by Thursday.
The storm also interrupted a couple of summer construction projects in the parks — the restoration of the tennis courts at Windmont and the construction of a new outdoor dining area next to the 19th Hole restaurant at Baker Park.
