Public meeting scheduled to gather input on plan to replace Viroqua’s ‘Dragon Park’

June 10, 2025

VIROQUA, Wis. – A public input meeting will be held Wednesday on a plan to replace one of the most beloved landmarks for the residents of Viroqua, the park that most locals refer to as “Dragon Park”. The park is a popular destination, not just for kids and families, but for visitors and tourists as well.

Meeting – Wednesday, June 11, 2025
4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Viroqua City Hall Lower-Level Community Room
124 W Decker St.

Located inside the city’s Eckhart park, the playgrounds official name is Eckhart Enchantment, but the large green dragon silhouette in the side caused most people to simply call it Dragon Park.

A couple of generations of kids have now been enchanted by the popular family play site that has kept them busy for hours exploring the twists and turns under a beautiful canopy of mature trees. The way the structure came about has also added to the emotional connections surrounding the playground. Built in a about a week with mostly community labor in 1996, the structure holds a sense community like few other local landmarks.

But that structure is slated to be removed and replaced, with what city leadership hopes is a better and safer play area. 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 also because they 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 member, staff and community members including Angie Lawwrence, Charlie Knower, Akram Abed, Matt Emslie, Kim Littel, Jacob Kanis. A leadership committee includes council member Steve Willis, City Administrator Nate Torres and Park and Rec Director Kale Proksch.

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.

Below is the video from the February Viroqua Park and Rec Committee meeting where the committee decided to cut ties with Leathers and Associates

The leadership and volunteer committee members expressed extreme frustration with the company and disappointment that they would likely not be able to stay close to the original Dragon Park materials and concept.

“They haven’t been the best to work with in regards to giving us the prices and what we want to see the community build, to be completely honest with you,” said Proksch. “This is overwhelming for me, and again, the leadership, I think, expresses the same concerns. I don’t know if we can do this in our community. Again, we’re a small community. I would hope we could but it’s not like we were 20 years ago when we had big Lions Clubs and Rotary Clubs and other clubs. I could be wrong, but that’s my concern.”

Since February the city has developed new plans with a Wisconsin based company, Lee Recreation, and has fleshed out several proposed versions of a new structure.

Designs range from $450,000 to $680,000. Option one is around $645,000, option two is approximately $680,000, and option three with a custom play mound is even more expensive, estimated at over $200,000 additional cost. The committee is trying to keep the project close to the original $600,000 budget.