NEAR WEST SIDE — After concerns were raised about the neglected Wilma Ward Memorial Park, Near West Side neighborhood groups and a group of ex-cons have rallied to clean up the site.
Up until last week, the park's gardens were covered in trash and weeds, and many of the raised garden beds that line the park had been dismantled or damaged. But in the last few days, Ald. Walter Burnett Jr.'s office (27th), city departments and community groups have come together to clean the small park at Madison Street and Hoyne Avenue.
Ex-cons and community volunteers have rallied to clean up Wilma Elizabeth Ward Memorial Park on the city's Near West Side. [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]
The city's Department of Streets and Sanitation worked to pick up some of the large debris left in the park and dropped off two wire garbage baskets to hopefully curb the litter problem.
Workers from the department's CleanSlate program, a re-entry initiative for ex-convicts, cut weeds, trimmed trees and picked up litter in the park. The program provides on-the-job training and transitional support services for people who face substantial obstacles to employment, including criminal histories and recent incarceration, according to the city's website.
Volunteers from St. Leonard's Ministries, a Near West Side non-profit aimed at helping people recently released from prison, assisted in the clean-up effort, Burnett said. Jorge Sanchez, president of development firm Fargo Corporation, has committed to fix the stone work on the large flower bed in the park and make other minor repairs.
St. Leonard's crews will continue to clean the park once every other week and the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation will empty litter baskets on site every week.
On Tuesday, Burnett said the park now looks almost as good as it did when the Near West Side Community Development Corporation took over the vacant lots five years ago.
"We would like to think we have helped get the park back on its feet and that the Wilma Ward Memorial Park will continue to be a testament to the dedication that Ms. Ward showed to her community, and the park continues to be a place for the community to enjoy," he said in a statement.
The Near West Side Community Development Corporation, with the help of several dozen volunteers and part-time student employees, worked to create the Wilma Ward Memorial Park gardens five years ago. It is named for Wilma Ward, a West Haven activist who worked for the corporation and served on the Near West Side Community Development Board. She was "one of our community heroes," the corporation's website says, and advocated for residents displaced by the construction of the nearby United Center.
Earnest Gates, executive director of the the Near West Side group, said the group hasn't figured out what is going to happen to the park.
Trash fills a barrel once used to irrigate the garden at the Wilma Ward Memorial Park last week, before the community worked to clean up the site. [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]
Ward Memorial Park, which sits on three vacant city-owned lots, was intended to be a temporary park, according to Burnett. It is not under the umbrella of the Chicago Park District.
Wilma Elizabeth Ward Memorial Park is on the corner of Madison Street and Hoyne Avenue on the city's Near West Side. [DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay]
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