Universally accessible park coming to Easter Lake's north shore in Des Moines
Construction on Easter Lake Park's north shore is kicking off next week to make way for a recreation site that could soon be one of the most universally accessible waterfront parks in the country.
Easter Lake Park in southeast Des Moines draws 1.3 million visitors annually, making it Polk County Conservation Board's busiest park. And with more than 370,000 people with disabilities and 240,000 veterans living in Iowa, Athene North Shore Recreation Area, a project estimated at $8.1 million, will give more community members with special needs an opportunity to make use of outdoor recreation space in the county.
Conservation board members, along with project donors and community members, held a groundbreaking ceremony at the future site Wednesday to celebrate the amenity.
"It will be so nice to see a park come to life for people with disabilities," said Jeff Schmidt, 30, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony.
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Schmidt, of West Des Moines, is an avid hand cyclist and kayaker who is living with cerebral palsy. He doesn't come to Easter Lake often but says the park's planned features, including accessible equipment, will change that.
Ideas for renovating the park came from a conservation board feasibility study done in 2020, which showed there weren't enough accessible amenities for people with disabilities.
Survey respondents "really felt like our community really needed a park that didn't just have one accessible swing or just have one accessible dock," said the board's community outreach supervisor Jessica Lown. "They wanted a place that was fully accessible for people to recreate and near the water."
A fundraising team made up of community leaders — including Ric Jurgens, former CEO of Hy-Vee, Bob Meyers, former CEO of Casey's and Scott Jean, CEO of EMC Insurance — raised $8.3 million for the project. The largest donor was Athene, which gifted $1 million. Polk County also received grant funding to go toward the project, Lown said.
The fundraising team is working to get an extra $500,000 for seed money to be put toward programming and maintenance for adaptive equipment and staff training.
The waterfront property has already come a long way, Lown said. In 2018, crews dredged 678,000 cubic yards of sediment from Easter Lake and stabilized 22,700 linear feet of shoreline, according to conservation board officials. An in-lake silt basin was installed under the pedestrian bridge that captures sediment from Yeader Creek before reaching the main body of the lake, making it now one of Iowa's cleanest lakes.
"We really see this as the next evolution," Lown said of the upcoming renovations.
Some of the planned amenities will include an accessible pontoon boat and canoe/kayak launch and a zero-entry ramp to provide easier access to the water; large beach mats to serve as accessible walkways over sand; extra-wide paths for people in wheelchairs and walkers; and adaptive and accessible equipment for rent such as sand wheelchairs, kayaks and rowing equipment.
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It will also feature de-escalation rooms for people with sensory input disorders, a natural playscape for children and outdoor recreation programming, Lown said.
Owen Leder, 13, who attended the groundbreaking ceremony with his parents, John and Emily Leder, said he's excited to fish and boat on the lake once renovations are completed.
The lake is home to bluegill, bullhead, catfish, crappie, large-mouth bass and walleye, according to conservation board officials.
John Leder says his son, who has a disability, doesn't always get invited or included because people don't know how to interact with or provide a safe environment for him.
It's hard for Owen to cross grassy fields with a walker or wheelchair to get down to a boat, John Leder said, so amenities like an accessible boat launch and a zero-entry ramp to the water will make the lake more enjoyable.
When the park opens in 2024, "we'll probably get some bait, get some (fishing) poles and invite some friends out here and make it an afternoon," Leder said.
Crews will break ground on the site, starting with the demolition of existing structures, on Nov. 1, Lown said. Crews will take a break over winter and start back up on earthwork and construction next spring. The project is expected to be completed in the spring of 2024. The address of the future Athene North Shore Recreation Area is 2816 Shoreline Road, Des Moines, IA 50320.
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Lown says through the project, the universal design team is developing a process-driven checklist that functions as a guidepost for architects and designers to develop accessible spaces. The goal is to use the checklist to drive future work across Polk County, Lown says, though the hope is that other park systems across the country use it as a model as well.
"There are hundreds and thousands of families who have a member of their family who is living with a disability of some way shape or form and they need to know that we want them to embrace and love and recreate and be part of nature just as anyone else can," she said.
Virginia Barreda is the Des Moines city government reporter for the Register. She can be reached at vbarreda@dmreg.com. Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Easter Lake park to feature accessible boat launch, walkways
