Before the Pershing Mural finds its new home in Wyuka Cemetery, renovations for Lincoln’s first public park must get out of the not-so-deep end.
KLIN News recently caught up with Facilities Director for Wyuka Greg Osborn, for an update on the Wyuka Redevelopment Plan. Osborn said shrubbery and foliage is being cleared near the west-side pond, as a part of the first “infrastructure-phase” of the project.
“We have a master plan for restoring Lincoln’s first public park. We’re doing our infrastructure right now, which is our pond. We’re going to install hard sandstone sides on it. The pond will be finished, hopefully early summer next year, and then we’ll start with the mural,” Osborn delivered with enthusiasm.
According to Osborn, Wyuka’s pond is in a storm-water run off zone which drains 255 acres of land south of “O” Street. This infrastructural overload prompted the beginning of renovations in 2017. This year, the Nebraska State Legislature voted to aid these efforts, granting $1.8 million dollars in ARPA funds to the project.
After the pond is complete, Osborn says focus will then shift to, “renovating the park portion, where people can do picnics and things like that. Then we have another area of the park that will house an all needs children’s playground. And then Wyuka gave the property area to set the Pershing Mural on, and that’s our four projects for our park.”
“When we decided to bring the [Pershing] Mural to Wyuka, that really accelerated our park and playground renovations,” said Osborn, who added how the COVID-19 pandemic stalled work on the project, “But finally, in 2023, we’re breaking ground. We’re removing all the trees and shrubbery, we’re draining the pond, and then we’ll install a forebay that will help keep the renovated pond clean.”
The Wyuka overseeing committee is entering a fundraising phase in order raise money to close the project deficit, which Osborn says is about $500,000.