Richland Center Parks and Recreation- big plans, small city
Nestled in one of countless valleys throughout the Driftless Area in Southwestern Wisconsin, the City of Richland Center is big on Parks and Recreation.
Recently, I spent some time with Richland Center’s Parks and Recreation director Shane Stibbe and Parks and Grounds and Maintenance Superintendent Dave Fry.
Having driven through the city countless times, I passed by a couple parks. Little did I know that is just the tip of the iceberg on what Stibbe and Fry, along with several other employees, maintain daily for the benefit of the residents and visitors.
Stibbe, a 1995 graduate of UW-LaCrosse, interned for the Waukesha Park and Recreation Department. Upon Graduating, he worked at the YMCA in Dubuque, Iowa from 1995 to 1998, before accepting the job as the Richland Center Parks and Recreation director in 1998.
Fry, started out in factory work spending 10 years in Muscoda. From there, he worked for 20 years in Spring Green. “Now, I’ve been back here probably 12 years, and of the three jobs, I’ve probably enjoyed this one the most. I get to communicate with the public a lot. That’s an ongoing daily thing with our jobs. You don’t do the same thing like a factory job every day. Here it’s something different. You don’t know what to expect. Anything you can think of is possible to happen in a day,” Fry said.
Richland Center boasts seven parks that equal right around 275 acres, seven buildings, ten rental shelters, a cemetery, kayaking ports on the Pine River, several miles of trails that include one for mountain biking, basketball courts, an 18-hole Frisbee golf course, and tennis courts that have been turned into Pickleball courts.
As if that was not enough to maintain, the city’s airport maintenance also falls under the Parks and Recreation department.
“I get the opportunity to go all over this town. I couldn’t do all that plus focus on recreation that’s why it became more of a separation to be focused on each of those jobs,” Stibbe said of his and Fry’s jobs.
Fry also has to be part forester. Working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the county, Fry finds himself keeping the health of the park’s trees in check. “Right now, we are in a big ash tree removal project because we’ve been hit with that Ash Borer. We set that up on a four-year plan, we are going into the third year now, and hopefully by the end of the fourth year we will have that done. We sat with a tremendous amount of ash trees. As we remove them, we are trying to replace as we go. All of the wood is being sold, we sell the whole works, which is money back toward the project. So far, it has been going well, knock on wood,” Fry said with a chuckle.
As Fry noted, the city is replacing the Ash with multiple types of trees. “It’s just too much of the same thing in the town. No ash is going to be planted until it can be proven that that thing is gone. I checked with the state, and I don’t see it happening. We started out with 475 Ash trees. Coming into this year, we’re not at quite half. We have other trees we deal with besides ash, so we try to keep them worked in.”
With the department always looking to drive revenue, rental of the city’s ten shelters helps, seeing about three-hundred reservations per year. The newer community and recreation building where Parks and Recreation have their office, also offers rental space for the public to hold events and meetings.
With Pickleball gaining popularity and tennis losing, Stibbe said it was an opportunity to use what was already available. “We had three tennis courts by the basketball courts. It’s come to a point where tennis isn’t being played, its pickleball. The court is half the size of a tennis court, the net is lower, and you don’t have to run as far. It’s like table tennis, but you are on the court. So, we built six pickleball courts. At night time, we have three courts here in the gym. It’s very, very popular. It’s probably one of the fastest growing adult sports there are.”
With the Pine River weaving its way through the city, the river is a big draw with kayakers and canoers alike. With Fry’s experience and oversight, the city maintains six landings. Pine River Paddle by Rock Ridge works with the city to incorporate a lot of the recreational programs. Stibbe said that in addition to keeping the public aware of the kayaking programs, he stressed that anyone with a kayak or canoe, are welcome to use the city’s ports. Both Stibbe and Fry acknowledged that the river and recreational opportunities are an important draw for city tourism.
For biking enthusiasts, the city offers an ongoing trail system. “I don’t know exactly how many miles, but it is several miles of ongoing trails throughout the whole city land that we have. The last three years we put in a mountain bike trail, which is really starting to gain popularity, along with an 18-hole frisbee golf course which is throughout the parks system.”
While wearing several hats in his job, Stibbe acknowledged his focus. “In my sense it would be all of the recreation programs, the shelter rentals, the rental of this building, while working with Dave closely. Sometimes, we coincide if it is park related. We used to do other things, but my focus is more of the parks part, not maintenance wise, but if we do something that is recreation related, we work together on that.”
Fry shared his focus as well. “I oversee all of the maintenance on the parks, maintenance on the cemetery, I am the airport manager, and work along with city forester. For the airport, I can receive multiple calls in a week, or I can go a week with no calls. Right now, we are in the process of a new terminal building, and we just got done with a new fuel farm there. Business has really been picking up at this airport.”
Fry also said, with maintaining ten parks, there are around 275 acres that are consistently mowed throughout spring, summer, and fall, with as many as eight lawnmowers going on any given day.
With its close proximity to the Pine River, the city was not spared from the flooding in August of 2018. “It didn’t just affect us last year (2018). It effected the playground equipment, the pickleball courts that we have to maintain, it effects within the recreational games that are going on, because you have to cancel all of the games because people can’t play in dirty water. It’s a lot of work including working with FEMA trying to get money back from them,” Fry said.
He continued, “We had four years in a row that we got pounded. That last one (2018) the water came clear up to the dike. It was the highest I have ever seen it. We have a system set up where, when I get the green light from emergency management, they will call me and tell me what’s happening up stream. Then, it’s all hands on. Anyone who I can get to volunteer, we take everything out of the park from picnic tables to you name it. We move it all to high ground and wait it out. Stuff you can’t move, you try to tie it down,”
At one point during the flooding the city lost a kayak landing, and an expensive one at that. “With a little luck from our part-time kids, I sent them on a mission to find that. Within an hour they found it. That was a $5,000 item that went down stream, so I was pretty happy when they found it. We were able to retrieve it and put it back in place. There’s quite a system we go through, and knock on wood we’ve gotten good at it. I don’t like doing it because there is so much clean up afterwards,” Fry admitted.
While the city of Richland Center’s Parks and Recreation Department runs like a well-oiled machine, Stibbe gave credence to the Richland County Land Conservation Department and County Conservationist, Cathy Cooper. Stibbe said that his department works hand in hand with the county. “I stay in touch with them as far as what they are doing. They like to know what we are doing. Once we took off with the kayak landings, they started doing it as well. It all ties together.”
As with many other communities affected by flooding, the residents pulled together to rebound. “We have this place here (community center) as a fall-out shelter for people to stay at night. There are houses in the flood area. This place ends up somewhere for people to stay if need be. That’s one of the reasons we got this building. There was a flood litigation grant that we received in 2012. We had a community center building down by the river which got quite flooded. With the help of Mayor Fowler back then, we had that building moved to this location so it was away from the flood,” Stibbe said.
With the community center offering the Woodman Senior Center, gymnasium, kitchen and a large meeting room, it sees its share of use. “If we could, people would have this open 24-hours a day. People use it that much. It’s a hot spot. It’s a place for seniors, a place for anyone,” Stibbe remarked.
In addition to providing a place for seniors to meet, the center offers seniors meals Monday through Friday. On Fridays, the center provides frozen meal trays for the weekend. Stibbe said they provide about 110 meals per day, with about 70 of those being distributed by Meals on Wheels. “Seniors like to use the community center for their meals, so that gets them to come here too, instead of being home all day.”
Looking to the future, Stibbes and Fry left the best for last. The Woodman Aquatic Center will provide city residents and surrounding areas an additional recreational opportunity.
The city’s outdoor family pool was torn down in March of last year, making way for construction to begin by the Brickl Brothers Design Build and General Contractor in May.
The pool, slated to open June of this year, will be a tax and fee combo. People will have to pay membership fees, and the taxes generated will also help run the facility. Stibbe stressed that the Aquatic Center will be open to the public, regardless of where you live. The city has hopes that it will increase tourism.
The Woodman Aquatic Center’s main building will include a bath house, concessions, and offices, while the pool will feature a zero-depth area, diving boards, slides, and a lazy river. Stibbe said, when completed, the center will have a Wisconsin Dells water-park feel to it, just on a smaller scale.
On an economic level, the Woodman Aquatic Center will add to the city’s workforce. “We usually have 8 or 10 guards, but for this pool we will probably staff about 20 people, which will probably be younger people. There aren’t many jobs in Richland Center that the city can offer to young people,” he said.
Always looking to improve the city’s parks and recreation, Fry said, “We always have ongoing projects. We have new scoreboards coming in. I was fortunate enough to go to Richland County Bank and get a donation. We purchased new scoreboards for our North Park, which we were in dire need of. Those will get put in this coming spring. I was rather surprised when they (Richland County Bank) said they would help me out with the whole thing. We have some other projects that we are still working on. We are always working on something.”
Parks and recreation do not come cheap as most cities and counties would agree. Fry shared, “We are continuously looking for grants. We work very closely with longtime resident Sheila Troxel, who is a wonderful lady. She does a lot for this city. I work really close with her on the playgrounds. She has the Wallace Cooper & Elliott Insurance here. With her help, we have made vast improvements to our playground, including a new playground where the old community center used to be.”
Helping to fund some of these bigger projects, Stibbe said the city received a $200,000 grant from the Joan Woodman Orton Foundation to help build the new community center, and an additional one million towards the Aquatic Center. Likewise, the public has banded together raising a little over a million dollars to help fund the project as well. “I think it’s an advantage to the community to bring more people to Richland Center to enjoy and spend more money. I believe our parks are some of the better ones in the area by far. People say that all the time. We’re pretty proud of ourselves and the parks and recreation that is available.”
Even with the Aquatic Center project construction, Stibbe added that the department has begun looking at constructing skateboard parks that have gained in popularity.
So, there you have the rest of the iceberg. No doubt, the future of Richland Center’s Parks and Recreation looks bright.
For more information on the Richland Center Parks and Recreation, visit https://ci.richland-center.wi.us/parks-rec/, or on Facebook.
