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Neighborhood park finally gets a name
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MONROE - A little neighborhood park on Monroe's southwest side finally has an official name - Valley View Park.

The Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners approved the name at a meeting Wednesday.

Paul Klinzing, supervisor of the Monroe Parks Department, said the park was named after the subdivision with the same name.

The little park sort of named itself.

No other names were even consider, Klinzingsaid.

Valley View Park, at the end of 27th Street Boulevard along 2nd Avenue, was a three-lot section set aside and deeded to the city when Werner and Marleen Zimmerman started the 100-lot subdivision in 1975.

Thirty-three years later, the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners voted unanimously to pursue the park project. Alderman Charles Schuringa brought the idea to commissioners after hearing numerous requests from local residents.

The park is 160 feet deep and 190 feet across. The Badger State Trail runs past the southwest edge of the park, several feet above it. A natural stream, trickling from the end of a culvert installed during the subdivision development, flows southwest to join Hawthorne Creek.

Klinzing said members of many community organizations helped develop the park's amenities.

Daniel Becker, Monroe, took up the work of designing some landscaping for the park as part of his Eagle Scout project. He also added two hardwood maple trees, a Debra Maple and an Emerald Luster, and a perennial garden to the park.

The trees stand on either side of a mini shelter, covering a picnic table and benches, sure to give shade when they mature. The city parks department erected the shelter.

Eagle Scout Lucas Koch and his team spent several days clearing dead trees and brush along the trail and stream.

Monroe's Morning Optimists Club donated $2,000 toward the park's needs.

Funding also came from the Kiwanis Club and from the Clifford and Dorothy Reasa Charitable Fund of the Monroe Fund.

The park features some play equipment, a swing set with regular and infant seats, a slide and spring-mounted animal rides.

All the streets to the park are dead ends, which limits through-traffic, and "are plenty wide for parking," Schuringa said. The neighborhood is quiet and most local traffic to the park area is "by foot or bicycle," he added.

The lots were wetlands when they were set aside for the park.

"Ducks built their nests there," Marleen Zimmerman said, when she learned of the park development plans in 2009.