Warm weather leads to Wagner Park closure

Mother Nature giveth and she taketh away for locals who have been enjoying Wagner Park over the last few months.

The downtown park was again fenced off on Tuesday to allow sod that was laid last fall time to better establish its root system now that the winter blanket of snow has melted.

Chris Forman, operations manager for the citys parks department, said hes optimistic that the closure wont last more than a few weeks, but stressed that weather extremes could make that longer or shorter.

We dont anticipate that it will be that long of a closure, Forman said Tuesday. The new drainage system is working great, but we dont have as strong of a root system [as wed like right now.]

The popular downtown spot was closed to the public on Aug. 4 while $900,000 in upgrades to its irrigation and drainage systems were installed.

A new layer of sod was placed in October and the parks department at the time felt the new grass needed the winter and some of the spring to fully take root.

But after some early-season heavy snowfall, the fences were taken down on Dec. 23 and people again flocked to the park.

Forman said the field is pretty squishy right now, and with possible rain in the forecast, it was time to close it off.

Its really, really wet out there, he said.

Forman said that while the turf made it through the winter in great condition, they now need to make sure it survives the spring thaw.

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Warm weather leads to Wagner Park closure