Broadview Park District Breaks Ground On Pioneer Park Renovations

Broadview Park District and village officials break ground on Pioneer Park renovations on June 10. | Michael Romain 

Friday, June 10, 2022 || By Michael Romain || @maywoodnews 

During a brief ceremony on June 10, Broadview Park District officials formally broke ground on renovations to Pioneer Park, located at the corners of 24th and 14th streets in Broadview. 

The project will create a new baseball field and dugout, renovate the basketball court, and install a more handicap accessible playground, park district officials said in a statement. 

“This is a multi-year collaborative effort only made possible by the hard work of many different people,” said Brian Dawson, the executive director of the Broadview Park District. “The residents of Broadview deserve an updated park.” 

Dawson said planning on the park dates back to his predecessor, former park district director Reginald Davis before thanking former and current park district commissioners.

Des Plaines-based JSD Professional Services helped secure an $800,000 Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) grant that will help fund the renovations. The park district hired Clauss Brothers based in Elgin to do the landscape construction.

Once the project is completed, Pioneer Park will be just the second universally accessible playground in the area, said Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson. 

That means the playground is designed to be used by children of all physical and emotional abilities. Thompson said the brand new baseball field means that the sport will finally return to Broadview. 

“When we collaborate and bring partnerships together this is what happens,” Thompson said. “This is what makes Broadview strong — that we can work together and collaborate even in our differences. We get things done.”