As my year as TLNA's Parks Chair comes to a close, I want to update you about what's been going on this past year at our neighborhood parks.

This July I and a number of Isthmus parks representatives met with Jim Morgan, Madison's Parks Superintendent. I was impressed with his energy and enthusiasm and I was also daunted by the challenges he faces. Madison has twice the national average in acres of park per capita but is below the median in funding for cities this size. Forty-five new parks have been created in the past twenty-five years and the growth in parks on the edges is taking resources away from existing downtown parks. He said there are four choices for city parks: 1) more productivity, 2) more funding, 3) less acres, and 4) lower standards; and that the city has gone for lower standards the past twenty-five years.

That leaves us with the fact that neighborhood residents have to take the initiative for projects outside of the routine. And many Tenney-Lapham residents have stepped up to accept that challenge. It's been my pleasure to work with a number of dedicated neighbors who have invested much time and energy into making our parks a wonderful focal point for the neighborhood.

The Friends of the Yahara River Parkway have had bimonthly work parties since the spring along the Yahara River and Tenney Park. Even though the riverway and Tenney Park look lush and green, there are a tremendous amount of non-native invasive plants like honeysuckle, buckthorn, and grape vine that are strangling the other trees and shrubs. Most of the Friends' activities involved removing those invasive species and replanting with a number of different native species along with watering and mulching the new plantings. TLNA residents Margaret Bergamini and Ed Jepsen have been key leaders in this group.

If you have walked the breakwater this summer, you might have noticed the nice plantings of perennials and junipers along the building as you enter the breakwater. You can thank Gigi Holland, longtime neighborhood resident, for raising the money and doing the planting.

TLNA received a Community Enhancement Grant from the City of Madison to rejuvenate the plantings surrounding the historic restroom at the corner of Marston and Sherman Avenues in Tenney Park. Volunteers cleared the area of honeysuckle and buckthorn and next spring the area immediately surrounding the restroom will get some topsoil, be regraded, and then seeded in grass. The two tree/shrub islands between the bike path and Sherman Avenue have had the buckthorn and honeysuckle removed and will be replanted with pagoda dogwood, serviceberries, gray dogwoods, blackhaw viburnums, witch hazels, and other native plants. The Friends of the Yahara River Parkway along with neighbors along Marston Avenue have helped with this project. A special thank you to Jim Sturm for his chainsaw expertise.

The Tenney Park historic sign is still in the design phase and it is hoped will be installed in 2002. It will be at the corner of Marston and Sherman.

The Giddings Park boat dock was destroyed in the summer of 2000 when Lake Mendota had that tremendously high water for a long period of time. I have corresponded with Tom Maglio of the City Parks Department who indicated it would cost at least $8,000 to replace the dock and there is no money in the budget for the dock. I would like to see the dock replaced but it will take some creative brainstorming to raise the money and make this happen.

Jay Huemmer, who has made Reynold's Park an object of his affection for years, is the man responsible for the flowers by the Reynold's Park sign by the playground equipment. Many an evening this summer Jay would drag buckets of water to those plants. Thanks Jay.

The generator the water utility put in two years ago at Reynold's Park has been a bone of contention for the entire time because it is aesthetically incompatible with the rest of the park. At this writing Alder Konkel is arranging a meeting with the City Water Utility and adjacent neighbors to come up with an acceptable design to make it blend in better with the rest of the park.

The street end at North Paterson has been another issue whose time is past due. A lawsuit a few years ago gave an adjacent private landowner legal title to city lakefront property because of claims the city "abandoned" the property. At a minimum a bench with a view of the lake along with some stairs down to the lake would provide all of the residents of the neighborhood access to the remaining property that is still under city control.

Burr Jones Field has a couple of new basketball courts where the old curling club used to be. The city will remove some asphalt near the new courts so there will be no net loss of green space.

Mayor Baumann has created a Breese Stevens Neighborhood Planning Committee to explore potential new uses of the neighborhood landmark. Alder Konkel will represent the 2nd District on the committee and has nominated Eric Bertun and me to be the citizen representatives. The committee has not yet met but we will keep you informed via occasional articles in this newsletter.

I will be handing over the park's chair to Margaret Bergamini. I'll still stay involved with TLNA as coeditor of the newsletter.

And again this year the purple martins didn't come to the birdhouses by the locks. Hope springs eternal - "next year they will be there" will be my mantra all winter. Adios.

- Bob Shaw

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