National Guard to work on Brookside Park in May

About 40 Missouri National Guardsmen will be in Jackson starting next month to smooth out part of Brookside Park for further development.

As part of their annual training, members of the of the 220th Engineer Company of the Missouri Army National Guard will begin work May 30. The company, based in Festus, Mo., will flatten four acres uphill from the Veteran's Memorial.

The area could accomodate a baseball field or picnic pavilion, said Shane Anderson, Jackson director of parks and recreation. The next phases of the project have not been decided, he said.

"It opens up more options for land use," he said.

In the past, the area was slated for other projects, including a regulation-size baseball field or a little league field with a lake, said city engineer Kent Peetz. Developers evenutally used another area along U.S. 61 for the baseball field.

Peetz said the guardsmen will create two flat areas and terraces. There will be one flat section of about two acres and a smaller area that could be turned into a parking lot, he said.

Anderson said the city applied and reapplied for help from the guard during the past ten years, but their schedule kept them from the project.

"It's been a long time coming for them to come in and do work," Anderson said.

Peetz said the Guard's resources were tied up with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

"A Jackson park wasn't at the top of their list," Peetz said. The Guard contacted him in the fall to move forward with the project, he said.

First Lt. Matt Knoderer of Cape Girardeau will head the assignment. Knoderer, who served in Iraq for a year between 2004 and 2005, said the project gives inexperienced guardsmen time to learn how to use the equipment.

"This is the closest thing to a project we would do overseas," he said. "Obviously the big difference is that it's not a hostile environment."

Knoderer, who has been in the Guard for more than nine years, said the community will benefit from their training.

"It's going to allow a better park for children to play," he said.

The company is also doing similar work at Freer Elementary School in Barnhart, Mo., north of Festus.

The Jackson project is scheduled for completion June 20. Peetz said it will save Jackson at least $100,000.

He said he is also incorporating rain gardens to demonstrate how to use them to control storm water runoff. The gardens will be placed along slopes and include native plants and wood chips. The roots break up clay help rainwater filter through the ground, he said.

abusch@semissourian.com

388-3627

Pertinent address:

Brookside Park Jackson, MO