The Defiance City Parks Are Undergoing a Renaissance

In recent years, improvements have been made to various parks such as East Side, Bronson and Kingsbury. 

Defiance Mayor Mike McCann pointed out that during a recent Music in the Park event, he heard many people say how nice Kingsbury is with the improvements.

City planner Niki Warncke said she loves the transformation at Kingsbury.

“The last thing to be completed at Kingsbury is the new basketball court, which should be completed by the end of September,” she exclaimed. “Once we have the parks and riverfront master plan completed, we will have a better idea of what the community would like to see with the remaining space (available there).”

McCann stated that “there are four key players, and a few more with the park board, which deserve a lot of credit (for the work at the parks).”

The key players include parks and cemetery director Rob Cereghin, city engineer Melinda Sprow, Warncke and administrative assistant Christy Feeney. 

McCann said those four “come to the board of control meetings and tell us their vision and sell us the vision.” The board of control then has to take that vision for approval in front of the city council. 

McCann stated that Veterans’ Memorial Park (Latty’s Grove) will be the next park focused on for improvements.

“A little bit of work will get done this year,” he remarked. “Next year, we will have a renaissance in that park.”

Warncke laid out what will be going on at the park in the future as well as funding for it.

“We are in the planning and securing funding phase currently,” she outlined. “The construction phase will be in 2025-26. The city has secured $200,000 in the State Capital Appropriations Bill and a $20,000 donation from the AmVets. We are also working through multiple other grant opportunities right now.”

Warncke stated that the plan is to rehabilitate Latty Grove’s two shelters, like what was done at Bronson Park.

“In addition, we will add new park tables and grills, benches, trash cans, new games structures like corn hole and a few checker/chess tables,” she announced. “By the end of September, a new bocce ball court will be installed. The existing tennis and basketball courts will be resurfaced and the ball diamond will be cleaned up.”

In addition, there will be a new playground system to replace the older equipment at the park and a new concrete walking path around the park with lighting.

McCann stressed that in addition to the current park improvements, the city is in the middle of its parks and riverfront master plan.

“Hopefully by the end of next year, we’ll have a final plan to work with and have a plan to put into action,” he stated. “It’s exciting.”

The city is waiting to hear more from citizens through its parks and riverfront master plan before it unveils what will happen at its newest parks – Buchman, Memorial and Gateway.

“These areas are going to take a considerable amount of funding to complete,” Warncke indicated.

Warncke pointed out that there is no overall parks master plan for the city, however the city's comprehensive community action plan recommended creating a parks and riverfront master plan. The city has 18 existing parks and riverfront areas.

The city hired consultants from Jones, Petrie & Rafinski in early 2024 to help complete the plans. A booth to get community input was set up in August during the Family Fun Friday event in downtown Defiance. There also will be a community workshop to gather community input and ideas from 6-8 p.m. Sept. 23 at the Stroede Center.

Warncke emphasized the parks belong to the city’s residents and that is why it’s important to hear what they would like to see at the parks.

“We love hearing all the ideas and comments,” she gushed. “I encourage everyone to reach out with your ideas, whether it is through a survey, a workshop or just shooting me an email.”

She stressed that the best things about the city’s parks are that they are community gathering spaces that are created with the community in mind.

“I love that the more we work on the parks the more we see people outside playing, talking to neighbors, having fun,” she said. “This town is blessed with an amazing park system and a parks director that truly cares about this community. Rob Cereghin has done an amazing job maintaining what we have. I love working with Rob to see what we can come up with for the next park projects. It is the favorite part of my job.”