As I was taking a long, slow stroll through Regner Park last week, using two walking poles, I was impressed one more time by the 90 years of community efforts that has made it a jewel for people to enjoy.
Henry O. Regner, mayor of West Bend from 1926 to 1930, (pictured left) oversaw the park land purchase during his term, then known as City Park. It was renamed Regner Park in 1952 to honor him.
There are so many improvements to behold and enjoy, many funded and installed by a wide variety of partners.
Even on a chilly spring day, the park was jumping. There must have been 50 people on the pickle ball courts having a nice time being active and outdoors. I used to play tennis there when the nets were linked metal wire. (Bill Alderson and I played there once in a mid-January thaw.)
People were shooting baskets, and the West Bend East Suns were playing hard ball against Port Washington on the spanking new Carl M. Kuss Field, a recent nearly $2 million public/private project. It’s one of the best diamonds in the state.
I enjoyed seeing the spring blooms in the West Bend Labyrinth Garden, built and maintained by Labyrinth volunteers.
Six world-class public sculptures in the park (of 60 across the community) add a cultural dimension to the park. West Bend Friends of Sculpture, a nonprofit, finds donors to buy them, install and keep them looking sharp. Gus Peter, a board member, recently cleaned and restored Wave Dancer, a kinetic piece on North Main Street.
Several anglers, including a father and son, were trying their luck in the Kiwanis Early Risers fishing pond, an impoundment of Silver Creek before it empties into the Milwaukee River.
What’s not to like? And the active summer season has not yet begun.
There will be hundreds more park lovers at Regner in the prime summer weeks. They will enjoy amenities created in recent years, such as:
- A completely renovated swimming pond
- A splash pad for kids, donated by West Bend Rotary Club
- The Silver Lining Stage for live entertainment and events, donated by West Bend Mutual
- The Westbury Bank Aquapark
- An enlarged, multi-purpose and renovated Beach House with bathrooms, kitchen, meeting space and changing rooms — a result of donations, large and small
The latest major donation from the community is not yet in place. An anonymous benefactor donated $500,000 for a new skatepark to replace the old one. Thank you to that wonderful donor.
It will be one more contribution in a long line of community support, dating back to the depression era when funds from the estate of Mayor Regner were used to establish the 85-acre park.
When I got to West Bend in late 1969, one of the first things I observed was the striking level of civic and charitable leadership and engagement from across the community. Regner Park stands out as a remarkable demonstration of that proud, historic tradition.
Let’s keep it going. See you there soon for one event or another.
Other recent Observations:
West Bend and Washington County have a prehistoric deep supply of underground water. In answer to a question at a recent lecture sponsored by the Ceder Lakes Conservation Foundation and the Ziegler Family Foundation, David Mikelson, a retired UW-Madison geologist, said a huge deposit of gravel and stone resides under our region. The most recent glacier made that deposit 13,000 to 17,000 years ago. He said that it is full of water. It’s our aquifer.
Happy conclusion: this part of Wisconsin probably has an unending supply of fresh water.
When did the first humans inhabit the glacial part of Wisconsin? Mikelson estimated in his talk “Geology of the Ice Age Trail” at the Town of West Bend Hall that humans showed up about 13,000 years ago.
That is a minor moment in our geological history. Some of the rocks underneath us in our area are carbon-dated back to 2.4 billion years ago. Yes, “Billion” with a capital “B.”
We humans are very late arrivals.
