July 11, 2025
VIROQUA, Wis. -The city of Viroqua has been working on possible plans to renovate or replace the existing “Dragon Park” that is located inside Eckhart Park for several years. The name of the park is officially Eckhart Enchantment, but most locals know it as Dragon Park because of the large wooden dragon on the one side of the structure.
How we got here
The city of Viroqua Park and Recreation Department began researching how to replace the 29-year old structure several years ago. The wooden features in the park are starting to deteriorate and many of support posts are rotted and in danger of failing. Years of minimal maintenance to mainly wood materials has left the city with few options. Rotting support posts and broken equipment pieces has raised safety concerns for the city and families who use the space.
In an attempt to replace the old structure with something as close as possible to the original, the city (specifically, previous Park and Rec Director Dan Stalsberg) began discussions with the company that designed and built the original structure, Leathers and Associates. The city not only wanted to work with the same company to duplicate the design, but they also wanted to use the community labor approach that had work so well the first time around, and could potentially help keep costs down.
A volunteer committee was formed to fund raise and guide the project that included city council members, staff and community members. That committee includes Angie Lawrence, Charlie Knower, Akram Abed, Matt Emslie, Kim Littel, Jacob Kanis. A city leadership committee includes council members Steve Willis and Todd Kirking, City Administrator Nate Torres and Park and Rec Director Kale Proksch.
Gathering community input
An online survey was put out to city residents with 273 responses. The survey showed the top two favorite things about the current park are the trees/shade and the separation of and specific areas for older/younger children. The top three priorities for what the community would like to see in the park were a zip line, swings and climbing activities.
The survey asked if there was a theme people would like to see in the new playground. The top three priorities were to keep the current dragon theme, theme does not matter and nature/woodland/native/natural.
Things respondents would change, according to the survey results, included better ground surface/more accessible/no wood chips and more maintenance (grounds and equipment).
The survey also asked what could be incorporated into the playground to make sure those with special needs have a place to enjoy. The top two priorities were swings, solid ground, wheelchair accessible surfaces, safer passageways.
But high costs, poor response times for design changes and shifting demands for the community labor part of the project caused that committee, and the council, to cut ties with Leathers and Associates back in February of this year.
Since February the city has developed new plans with a Cambridge, Wisconsin based company, Lee Recreation, and has fleshed out several proposed versions of a new structure. But those designs have caused a fair amount of pushback from many residents, including many families that use the park on a regular basis. May of those residents have spoken out strongly about wanting to keep the structure a wooden structure, the need for a fence all the way around the park and keeping more imaginative elements like the ones in the current park. May residents are also not in favor of losing any of the mature trees.
Many of those residents have come to a number of meetings to voice their concerns, in particular a June 11 meeting that specifically talked about the proposed design.
You can read our story on that meeting here.
That caused the Parks and Rec Committee to go back the drawing board to try and address the concerns raised by residents. Revised plans were developed and the Committee will a public information and feedback meeting on that revised design on Tuesday, July 15, 6:00pm at Viroqua City Hall. As part of the meeting agenda, the Committee will review an updated design for the Eckhart Enchantment Playground project. The Committee will then host a public input session to gather additional feedback on the new design.
The updated design draft is now available for review:
For more information on the Eckhart Enchantment Playground project, including the full background on the project up to this point, please visit the Parks and Recreation page on our website:
Previous Public Input/Information
On Tuesday, June 3rd, the Parks and Recreation Committee reviewed two different draft plans of the project. Please see links below to review. These plans are no longer current. However, they were presented at the previous Public Information/Input session which was held on June 11, 2025
Revised plan that will be presented on July 15:
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