GALESBURG — Lake Storey Pavilion has reservations a year out, boat and campground rentals were high, and Bunker Links saw a record of 5,000 rounds of golf played at the park in August.

Elizabeth Varner, who became the new director of the Galesburg Parks and Recreation in April, shared all the major capital improvements made to the city’s 26 parks in 2022 and what the department has planned for 2023.

2022 projects

General Parks

• Added new paths at O.N. Custer Park, Bateman Park and Debbie Klapp Park in the summer. The new paths lead to new playgrounds that were installed there before 2022.

• Added new seal coating to park roads in the summer, a routine measure.

Lake Storey

• Purchased one more paddle boat.

• Sand added to the beach at the beginning of the summer.

• Landscaping done between the beach and the pavilion at the beginning of the summer.

• Completed the planning phase of the bike path extension project.

Lakeside

• New lights were added to four indoor tennis courts at Lakeside Recreation Facility in the spring.

• New “water play” features at Lakeside Water Park opened on Memorial Day and were completed in the fall. The water play features included two new water slides, spray guns and a “bucket o’ fun” that dumps water.

Churchill Junior High

• Acquired Churchill Junior High Middle School from the Education District 205 in the summer. The Galesburg Junior Senior High School soccer teams began using the former middle school’s fields in the summer.

Bunker links

• Installed a new golf driving range net in the spring and removed the old one.

2023 projects

General Parks

• To seal coating to park roads in the summer, routine.

• Plan to replace at least one bathroom in a park, likely in O.N. Custer Park.

• Awarded a grant to renovate H.T. Custer Park, which will begin in 2023 with new bathrooms, a new playground, a walking path and redone shelters.

• Will hear back in 2023 whether the city as been awarded a grant to add a new playground, walking path and half-court basketball court at Lancaster Park, though construction would not start until 2024.

Lake Storey

• If the unused water slide is not taken down by the end of 2022, Varner said she would like to get the slide removed in 2023.

• Lake Storey Multi-use path, to go all the way around Lake Storey. Starting at South Lake Storey, along the 150, and then connecting to the northside of the lake.

• Applied for a grant to fund a new bathroom added to the east boat ramp. A new bathroom was added to the west end of the lake in 2021.

• Plan to wide and resurface the north side of the trail.

• Add more sand to the beach and more landscaping around Lake Storey Pavilion.

Hawthorne Pool

• Structural and exterior renovations to be completed.

• New pool liner to be installed.

• Boiler pump room to be upgraded and renovated.

• Aim to reopen the pool will before summer of 2023.

Bunker Links

• Bridge #15 to be replaced

Tennis courts

• Plan to work with Education District 205 resurface the tennis courts outside Galesburg Junior Senior High School.

This article originally appeared on Galesburg Register-Mail: See what Galesburg parks and recreation plans for 2023