The nightmare is just about over for the city of Gillett, and officials plan to celebrate the reopening of Highway 22 through the community.
The city and the Gillett Area Chamber of Commerce will hold a celebration beginning at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 16 at Zippel Park, 150 N. McKenzie St., Gillett. The ribbon cutting will take place at 5:30 p.m. with remarks by Mayor Jon Blaskowski. In the event of rain, the event will be relocated to St. John’s Lutheran Church (The Clock Church), 101 N. Main St., Gillett.
For City Clerk Chelsea Anderson, the good times can’t roll soon enough. Besides being able to celebrate unrestricted access to the highway, which has been closed in some form or fashion for almost a year, the city is also celebrating the new playground equipment at Zippel, which replaces some equipment that has been in place for about 70 years.
The playground work has only taken about three months to complete, with the help of 8Pine, a Shawano-based construction firm. The $1 million project was made possible through a Community Development Block Grant.
According to Anderson, only a few finishing touches had to be made as of Sept. 30, and then the children of Gillett can play their hearts out — at least until winter temperatures drop too much.
“They still have to put in the Pour In Place Rubber. They have the first layer down,” Anderson said. “Next week, they’re going to finish the top, colorful layers and that’ll be it for the playground.”
The park project also included new restroom facilities and painting stripes on the pickleball and basketball courts, which will be done next summer, according to Anderson.
“All the trails are done, and the playground is done,” she said. “Excavation for the bathroom is done. It’s looking great and right on time.”
The old equipment is not being discarded, however. Anderson said that most of it is still usable and will be placed in Honey Park, 124 N. Richmond St., Gillett.
“It’s kind of like two upgraded parks in one,” Anderson said.
As for Highway 22, Anderson will be glad to see a paved road where equipment and mounds of dirt used to be. Although drivers were allowed business access to everything along the highway, the road conditions were very unpleasant.
“It feels so good,” Anderson said of the project completion. “We are really trying to get all our locals and our visitors to come visit all of our businesses and being able to park right next to it.”
As expected, things were rough for the businesses, Anderson said, but the good news is no businesses shuttered during the process, and things should get easier with the highway recently paved. She added that striping the road is the last part of the project to be completed.
“They’re all open, but it was a struggle,” Anderson said.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
