Hartung Park – Tot Lot Open, Landscaping Ongoing

Parents of young children have already discovered the new tot lot/children’s play experience at Hartung Quarry Park, where workers and equipment have helped transform a former landfill into a beautiful new public space at W. Keefe Ave. and N. Menomonee River Parkway.

Alderman Bohl, who has been actively working on the Hartung project since 2001, said the first phase of work on approximately six acres on the northwest quadrant of the seventeen acre site is now fairly complete. “Needless to say people who live in the area who have been intimately involved in this project are excited because they’ve witnessed a landfill become an outdoors area where residents from Milwaukee and nearby Wauwatosa can relax, recreate and enjoy themselves,” he said.

The work during the past six or seven months has included crews moving tons of soil and completing the grading work, laying down topsoil, sod and seed, planting additional trees, creating paths, and constructing the playground, Alderman Bohl said.

A community planting event for the demonstration rain garden was a success, and the limestone Silurian Reef outcroppings are in place just east of the tot lot. A pond that would help store storm water runoff is being planned for the southern portion of the park, with a stone labyrinth to be installed nearby. The pond, which would include surrounding trees, plantings and walking paths, is expected to be completed during 2010.

The quarry, used as a landfill for the city since 1964, will reach its capacity in the next couple of years and plans to use the area as a public park with approximately 10 single-family homes along the eastern and southern boundaries were approved with a resolution approved by the Common Council in 2006. A $250,000 state Department of Natural Resources grant– matched by $200,000 included in the 2008 city budget and $50,000 that had been previously allocated for the project – were the primary funding sources for the first phase of work on the park.