Things at South Omaha’s Mandan Park will soon be changing.
“We think it could be something incredibly special for a long time to come,” says the City of Omaha Parks and Recreation director Matt Kalcevich.
The road through Mandan Park will be closed as early as Tuesday, and once construction is complete, access will be solely for people walking or biking.
The city plans to create proper, sanctioned nature trails throughout the park, a hard-surface biking path, and more.
“Some improvements and betterment of places like the viewing points that have been lost over the years with the growth that’s happened, and the shelters and playground, and things of that nature in those areas that we just want to put back in a place where people are really seeking out this park and thinking of this as a destination for a recreation opportunity,” Kalcevich says.
Perhaps the biggest change the city is seeking to implement is a new youth camp.
“We’ve talked about the need to expand, we had almost 1,000 youth on our waiting list last year for our camps based at Hummel, Hanscom, Adams, and Zorinsky, so we’re really needing to meet the need there,” he says. “This would represent something a lot like what we have up at Hummel which has been in place for a long, long time now so to maximize that and capitalize on that is definitely something we’re looking forward to.”
Kalcevich says the city plans to thin out the overgrown vegetation in an effort to make people feel safer and reduce crime, which has plagued the park for years.
They talked with one neighbor that wants to keep the park as is. Apparently, the City hasn't really talked with anyone about the plans. There was a study someone posted a while back about biking trails and amenities the City was planning for and Mandan scored the highest for feasibility and implementation. Anyway, I think this is part of that plan, but I do not see any of the plans specifically for Mandan in the report.
The report says 70% of Nebraskans would like to see biking trails. I wonder what the breakdown is of wanting recreational trails vs useful trails?
I'm all for adding recreational trails of course. But I'd love to take their map, and add greenways where I put green lines. Roughly around here at least. Make commuting possible via walking, bikes or scooters for more people.
It's wild to me that any neighbor would want to keep it as is. The park feels sketchy as heck when you drive through. The road is completely torn up and there's trash everywhere.
Road through Mandan Park closes, park getting upgrades
Right now, Mandan Park is in the middle of getting a makeover. City leaders say they hope the changes bring more families in and keep illegal activity out.
Abbie Petersen, KETV wrote:Right now, Mandan Park is in the middle of getting a makeover. City leaders say they hope the changes bring more families in and keep illegal activity out. An overturned couch sits on the side of the road in Mandan Park as other trash litters the area. "As a city councilman who doesn't live far it's disturbing to me to know that I can't bring my kids to this park," said Councilman Vinny Palermo. "Illegal dumping and other just negative activities that certainly we don't want to have to be connected with or in and around the park," said Omaha Parks and Rec Director Matt Kalcevich. So, in a collaboration between the city and nonprofits, they're adding a summer camp in 2024, a nature center and trails among other things. Palermo is on board.
"We're finally to a point now where we're saying that's enough. We're taking this park back. We're going to finally have it be what it's designed to be. And that's for families and kids," Palermo said. To do that, Kalcevich says they closed the road through Mandan Park. "But there will be a portion specifically designed for walkers, bike riders, people with strollers, things of that nature for, again, a thoroughfare to get from one side of the park to the other," Kalcevich said. Everyone agrees they want to take back the park but people in the neighborhood say they want to do that with the road open. Jacky Paulson is one of them. She says they cleaned the road hoping it would be repaired. Paulson and other neighbors think the closure will make it more dangerous. "It will make it less safe, people aren't really going to feel comfortable walking in an isolated area," Paulson said. But Kalcevich says they can always go back to the drawing board. "I would ask people to give it time to see how things unfold and see what happens with our new existence," Kalcevich said.
Major changes are coming to a South Omaha park The City of Omaha plans to build a nature center in in the area along 13th street to help build more space to host summer camps in the area. It's almost a 4 million dollar project. Neighbors have a widespread opinion about the changes.
The city plans to start construction in the spring after planning it for two years. They hope the project will be of some convenience.
Looks like a good improvement for the area. Does anyone know if they have done any improvements to Mt Vernon Gardens park in the past 4 yrs. I use to take my Marrs XC runners there to run and it had slowly declined over the years.
Not sure if you mean the greenspace, gardens and building at Mt. Vernon, but Mandan is connected to Mt. Vernon via the bike trails. I’ve ridden through there several times to ride the bike trails and the park is in decent shape.
Speaking as an avid mountain biker, the trails that IMBA’s pro builders have built here are a good start and have excellent potential with more progressive features coming.
yard salad wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 9:38 am
Not sure if you mean the greenspace, gardens and building at Mt. Vernon, but Mandan is connected to Mt. Vernon via the bike trails. I’ve ridden through there several times to ride the bike trails and the park is in decent shape.
Yes I was. When first started practicing around there say 9-10 yrs ago, there were flower beds that were being taken care of. Then the flower beds went to weeds by the time I moved. Parking lot could be a little ‘shady’ at times.
yard salad wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 9:38 am
Not sure if you mean the greenspace, gardens and building at Mt. Vernon, but Mandan is connected to Mt. Vernon via the bike trails. I’ve ridden through there several times to ride the bike trails and the park is in decent shape.
Yes I was. When first started practicing around there say 9-10 yrs ago, there were flower beds that were being taken care of. Then the flower beds went to weeds by the time I moved. Parking lot could be a little ‘shady’ at times.
You mean all of the late middle aged men parked there in their late middle aged vehicles, “reading the paper”?
