Trends Summer 2015 | Page 10

Mitigating

the

Remediation plan restores balanced ecosystem to historic Wyoming lake

O n any given day community members in Cheyenne , Wyoming , convene in and around Holliday Park for a variety of recreational uses . Some bring picnic lunches , others use the space to exercise , and most just simply enjoy the views of historic Lake Minnehaha .

But it wasn ’ t long ago that the now peaceful , picturesque body of water looked more like split pea soup – and smelled putrid .
“ We had a lot of citizen complaints about the smell ,” said Rick Parish , the City ’ s director of Parks and Recreation . “ It was just an eyesore located in the center of the City , which was a real concern because it ’ s our second most popular park for usage .”
By Jennifer Schmidt
6│TRENDS
Connector provides safe passage to park The project also made travel safer for vehicles. Hendon explained that two formerly skewed side streets on the south end of Holliday Park were realigned to form 90-degree angles where they intersect with Nationway, improving driver visibility. Ayres coordinated with the Wyoming Department of Transportation to shut down the highly traveled Lincolnway for two-and-a-half days during installation of the underpass. A round the same time the conceptual study for Lake Minnehaha’s ecological mitigation was under development, additional Ayres staff were hired to design a pedestrian underpass at the south end of Holliday Park. Now complete, the underpass is making for safer travel across a busy, four-lane state highway and nonstop travel from Holliday Park to the Greater Cheyenne Greenway. “It’s sort of the big draw, the big greenspace in the heart of the community,” said Jeff Wiggins, senior planner for the City of Cheyenne Parks and Recreation Department, referring to Holliday Park. “We have a quarter to a third of our population working in the downtown area, and the park is a gathering point for the entire community – so it was an important destination for us to be able to get to with our greenway system.” Cheyenne’s greenway system weaves its way throughout the City. 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