Covering three-fourths of an acre, Stransky
Park boasts a gazebo; a playground with slides and a swing set; wide,
paved walkways; and a stone waterfall that dominates the park's east
side.
Scores of people, including donor Angeleen Stransky
and Mayor Coleen Seng, milled about on a chilly Sunday after a dedication
ceremony for the park at 17th Street and Perkins Boulevard.
“It's a work of art, really,”
said neighbor James Heydt, 41, about the park.
“I think, outside the Sunken Gardens, it
has the most aesthetic beauty in the smallest space” of any city
park.
Construction began in mid-April for the park,
for which Stransky and her late husband, Leonard, donated about $550,000.
Upkeep and maintenance for the park, which will cost about $10,000
a year, will be paid for by the family trust.
Neighbors are pitching in, too, with many offering
to open the park's wrought iron gates in the morning and close them
at night.
On Sunday afternoon, the park attracted many
neighbors and children who soon will play there.
Some already do.
Darcie Reed, 10, and her twin sister,
Terri, live about five blocks from the park.
They've already spent many afternoons pretending
to be mountain lions or other animals on the park's rocky waterfall.
And they talk to the neighbors walking animals
in the park.
“That's how we know people,” Terri
said.
Heydt, whose home is just across the street
from the park, said he enjoyed listening from his porch to the sound
of the waterfall, which drowns out the sound of traffic in the neighborhood.
Kitty Fynbu, of the Irvingdale Neighborhood
Association, said the park would draw “a lot of people from the
neighborhood as a gathering place. It's really well lit, and the water
always attracts people.”
Angela Kohmetscher took her 15-month-old daughter,
Natalie, to the park on Sunday. Kohmetscher said she liked the playground's
soft, black floor surface better than the rocks of most playgrounds.
Leonard Stransky, who died in 1998, was a grocer
who owned Trixie's IGA from the 1940s to the 1970s. The name of the
store came from Leonard's own nickname.
Although he gave to many causes, Angeleen Stransky
said, the park was her husband's first idea when he thought of causes
to which to donate.
They were married for about 50 years, she said.
The park was designed by Angeleen Stransky,
the planning and construction staff for the Lincoln Parks and Recreation
Department and architects and engineers from Olsson Associates. The
park's dedication plaque honoring the Stranskys reads: “It is
their wish to give a place of beauty back to the many customers that
supported them in the Near South and Irvingdale Neighborhoods.”
Angeleen Stransky said she has had many such
terriers over the years. A resin casting, a replica of the eventual
bronze sculpture, now sits in the park.
Angeleen Stransky said she thought of a green
island when she looked at the park.
But most of all, she said, “I wish Trix
could see it.”
