City of Viroqua unveils two new design options for ‘Dragon Park’

Aug. 28, 2025

The city of Viroqua has been trying to find a path forward on a design to replace the “Dragon Park” in Eckhart Park that is reaching the end of its life. Built with community volunteers in the late 90’s the park (officially known as Eckhart Enchantment) has become flashpoint as residents have showed up in large numbers to voice concerns that the previous proposed designs are too modern (metal and plastic vs. wood) and may result in the loss of some of the mature trees.

You can read our previous story about those meetings and community concerns here.

At those meetings residents have asked the city and the leadership committee that is working on the project to slow down and look at other options. Today the city announced it has been working a couple of more design options and is looking for the public’s input on those designs next week.

The Parks and Recreation Committee will hold a meeting at City Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 2 at 6:00 p.m. to provide additional feedback on the Eckhart Playground project.

The Eckhart Playground Leadership Team will present two designs for consideration:

• An update to the design from Lee Recreation.  This design incorporates the public comments delivered at the Parks and Recreation meeting on July 15th. 

• A brand-new design from Play By Design. This design also incorporates previous public input.  However, it should be noted that the Leadership Team is still in the early stages of the design process with this firm.  As such, not all elements asked for by the public (e.g. a fence) are currently represented in the design renderings. 

Following the presentation of the two design options, the Committee will host a public input session to solicit feedback and questions from members of the public in attendance.  

For additional information on how to join in-person or virtually you can find the meeting agenda here.

You can also find more information about the project on the Park and Recreation Department page here.

Previous meetings regarding Dragon Park designs

In February the Park and Rec Committee made a decision to cut ties with Leathers and Associates who designed the original “Dragon Park” due to contractual and logistical concerns. Below is a recording of that discussion.