Parks director: pedestrian bridge opens trail connectivity; Wylie Post Park upgrades and USS Oklahoma City memorial advance

Melinda McMillan Miller, director of Parks and Recreation, told trustees on Sept. 23 that the completed MAPS4 pedestrian bridge and recent repairs have restored the Greenway Trail connection and that significant improvements at Wylie Post Park are under way.

Miller said the Greenway Trail closure lasted about a year and a half and that the repaired trail now allows continuous travel from the northeast to the southwest and connections to the Katy Trail and Bricktown. She credited the new pedestrian bridge with reconnecting trail segments and said that if the city is successful with a 2025 GEObond effort, it would allow completion of the remaining segments to finish a 100-mile loop on the Deep Fork Trail.

Wylie Post Park North is under construction, Miller said, with portions of the North River Trail currently closed to accommodate site work. She said the project will remove old loop roads under the Robinson and Walker bridges to reduce graffiti and vandalism, add new parking lots, park amenities including a band shell and two playground areas (one under the Robinson Bridge for shade), and that the general improvements are expected to be completed around midnext year.

Miller said the USS Oklahoma City memorial committee is fundraising and that design proposals have been submitted; she explained the actual submarine sail from Bremerton, Washington, likely will not arrive for about three years because the reactor components must cool, so the project will include an artificial/mock sail initially and static displays such as an anchor and ship's bell.

On smaller items Miller confirmed that shade-structure steel is in place with concrete work continuing, and that a recirculating pump (noted in the agenda) had been installed as of the meeting.