From: Dave Searles

Brodhead

To the Editor:

I hear that the mayor and city council are finally considering establishing a park in the southern half of Brodhead.  

The northern part of town that includes one-third of land area and one-third of the population has six parks and access to the service road along the Sugar River Race. The southern part that includes two-thirds of the land area and two-thirds of the population has no parks.  

The location they are considering is a joke. They want to designate the retention pond in the industrial park across from Stoughton Trailers and the 15 to 20 feet around it as the south side park. The only people that live in the industrial park are those that live in the apartments over half a mile away.  

The land and pond are already city property and all they have to do is have a sign put up designating it a park and add a port-a-potty. This is completely unacceptable.  

The mayor and city council need to declare the land in southeast Brodhead between 15th and 17th streets and E. 6th and E. 7th avenues that is not suitable for housing development because the land is too low and the water table too high as the park for the southeast part of Brodhead. They also need to designate the vacated right-of-way of W. 3rd Avenue between 19th Street and the southern city limits as Cardinal Trail. In addition, they need to designate the land next to the library as the park in southwest Brodhead.  

The city needs to work with Applied Ecological and apply for grants to purchase the land and pay the expense of development and to maintain them.