This Belleville park is getting $900,000 in improvements including a restocked lake

Bicentennial Park in Belleville is getting $900,000 in improvements that include a new playground, a new entrance and parking lot off South 21st Street and the dredging of a lake so it can be restocked with fish.

Work began this spring on the playground and new entrance while the dredging is expected to begin soon. The projects are expected to be finished this summer.

The city is using TIF money to pay $200,000 to have the lake dredged. State and regional parks grants will be used to pay for most of the remaining $700,000. The city is using a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to pay for half the improvements while a grant from the Metro East Park and Recreation District will pay for a quarter of the costs. The city is using TIF money to pay for its 25 percent share of the costs.

You can currently access the park with an entrance at 4811 Belleville Crossing St. near the Belleville Crossing shopping center. The park, which has more than 40 acres, opened in 2013 and was named in honor of the city’s 200th anniversary celebrated in 2014. The site is the former Angler’s Club property.

The lake to be dredged is situated down a hill near the parking lot and playground under construction.

“We're going to be dredging … to remove all the organic matter and sedimentation from the bottom,” said Jason Poole, the city’s director of public works.

Poole said the lake will be drained and then all of the muck will be removed. The process will take about four weeks.

“It’s only 4 feet deep and the plan is to go down 12 foot deep to sustain fish, and that’s what the dredging is going to do here,” said City Engineer Tim Gregowicz.

Large fish can’t survive in the lake when it is 4 feet deep.

The lake is expected to be restocked with fish next spring and the fountain aerator in the lake will be reinstalled after the lake bottom is dredged.

Duck weed and filamentous algae cover the lake and Poole said he does not expect this growth to return when the lake refills to a depth of 12 feet.

The algae on this lake is different from the blue-green algae that had to be removed in recent years from the Bicentennial Park lake that has a fishing dock, Poole said.

Future plans call for two other larger lakes on the property to be dredged.

The lake with the fishing dock near the gazebo donated by the Kimball family and the lake near the Belleville Crossing entrance are expected to be dredged in future years.

The lake that is closest to the Belleville Crossing entrance is 7 to 8 feet deep and contains crappie, bass, bluegill and catfish.

“If you’re going to fish, you’d want to fish in that one,” Gregowicz said.

Along with the new playground off South 21st Street, there will be three smaller playgrounds and a new restroom. The park also has walking trails and a disc golf course.

This story was originally published May 25, 2018 at 9:42 AM with the headline "This Belleville park is getting $900,000 in improvements including a restocked lake."