Verburg Park closed over a year ago so two paper companies could remove toxic pollutants from the Kalamazoo River and a pond. Now that that part of the project is completed, the paper companies doing the work need to restore the grounds.
Georgia-Pacific and International Paper, the companies responsible for cleaning up the pollution, are doing so under the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency. In an email, the EPA said the companies need to move heavy equipment off site and onto the next phase of the project downstream. Once the equipment is gone, they can finish the job of putting Verburg Park back to how it was before. But the EPA said it’s up to the city of Kalamazoo to decide when to re-open.
Patrick McVerry is the director of Kalamazoo’s Department of Parks and Recreation. He said waiting until Labor Day will give the new grass and plantings time to get established before visitors start using the park. He also said that despite the delay, in some ways the park already looks tidier than it did before the cleanup.
“It's a lot more open. So, people notice a lot of older trees that hadn't been taken out and a lot of brush that was surrounding the river in the park, gone and it'll be a lot more visually appealing for the public.”
Over the next few weeks the boat launch will be enlarged and shrubs to stabilize the banks of the pond will be planted along with the new grass. And the Kalamazoo Valley River Trail, which runs through the park, will be restored.
“They anticipate everything to be kind of back to normal, with new seed growth and everything by the beginning to middle of July. And then from July through to Labor Day, it'll all have a chance to take root and grow and then we'll open back up on Labor Day.”
Several trees were cut down to make room for the excavators and barges to clean up the contaminated pond and river sediment. McVerry said new trees will be planted in the fall to replace the ones that were cut down. He also said the pond is deeper.
“It was actually quite a bit shallow from what it should have been and what it was a long time ago. So, they actually removed about three feet of the material in the pond here to actually make it a little bit deeper, which will be good for fishing and boating as well.”
