The Oak Lawn Park District plans to use a $2 million Illinois Transport Enhancement Program grant to replace the walking path and lighting at Wolfe Wildlife Park.
“The trails just have gone past their useful life,” said Tom Harding, the Park District’s executive director. “Pretty much, every community needs survey that we do at the Park District, the number 1 or number 2 thing on that list is always walking trails.”
The project will start at 109th Street and Lavergne Avenue and stretch southwest to 107th Street and Long Avenue, according to a news release.
The work will include the construction of a connector path along the east edge of the Richards High School tennis courts, providing a pedestrian connection from the bridge at Wolfe Drive and Long Avenue to 107th Street and Long Avenue, according to the news release.
“That park has a large trail system that goes from Richards High School all the way down to what we call Big Wolfe, the large park that’s at Wolfe Wildlife at like 109th,” Harding said. “I’ve been here for 28 years, and I know that the trails were here before me.”
The project will improve just over a mile of trail throughout the park, Harding said. Work will hopefully begin this fall, he said, dependent on the weather.
“If they can rip the trails out and get them back down while they can still get asphalt,” Harding said. “If not, it’ll be finished in the spring as soon as the weather allows.”
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The park is about 45 acres, Harding said, and designed to appear as it did before Oak Lawn was developed.
“That park gets a lot of walkers. Like, it’s a really pretty place to walk through,” Harding said. “It is a managed wildlife area, so a lot of the trees, a lot of the plantings, are all native. We work hard to keep those native.”
The park has a wide variety of birds, Harding said, as well as coyotes, foxes and aquatic animals such as frogs and turtles. It also sees a lot of monarch butterflies, he said.
“We’ve had bird enthusiasts tell us that they’ve seen over 100 different species of birds, including peregrine falcons, cormorants, egrets,” Harding said.
The planned work on the trails is the second phase of a broader improvement project. The first phase was completed about two years ago, Harding said.
“As part of the phase one project, we did redo the overlook, which is over by 109th and Laramie,” Harding said. “That’s just a really nice area to relax.”
Phase two will cost about $3.4 million, $2 million of which is covered by the state grant, Harding said. The Park District also received a $306,201 Invest in Cook grant from Cook County that will go toward the project, according to the news release.