Hart Park is Wauwatosa's central recreational hub, located adjacent to the Tosa Village business district. Much of the park has been unavailable for public use since mid-August, when the nearby Menomonee River flooded, filling most of the park with water.
The infield of the softball field is in shambles, as is the metal backstop. The playing surface in the football stadium was ruined by the floodwaters, which caused similar damage to the southern half of Hart Park's playground. The Wauwatosa Curling Club's basement room in the Muellner Building filled with six feet of water, and the ground-level ice arena also needed remediation.
The senior center in the Muellner Building has been closed since the flooding, because damage to the building's electrical system left it without power and without a working elevator. The Hart Park tennis courts have reopened but only during the day — the city has yet to restore power to the courts' overhead lights.
Those were some of the details and updates provided Sept. 16 by parks and public works officials, at a meeting of Wauwatosa's Board of Parks and Forestry Commissioners.
What the officials didn't provide was a timeline for completing the repairs and reopening the facilities that remain closed. Public Works Director David Simpson explained that the city has been cautious not to rush into repair work before hearing whether the city will be eligible for disaster aid through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.
"It's been a bit of a bureaucratic process," Simpson told the board, though he is hopeful that the city's patience will result in much-needed assistance. "We could expect that Tosa would receive a decent amount of money."
State and local officials learned last week that President Donald Trump had authorized nearly $30 million in FEMA aid to assist Wisconsin property owners recovering from storm and flood damage from Aug. 9 and 10. Simpson explained that the president's authorization did not yet extend federal aid to municipalities like Wauwatosa that sustained damage to public infrastructure. Until that additional authorization comes, city officials are choosing not to expedite repairs in ways that could disqualify the city from some of that federal assistance, Simpson said.
Last month, Wauwatosa estimated that the damage to city-owned properties totaled about $9 million, though more precise figures are not yet available.
Alex Krutsch, the parks and forestry superintendent, told the board that the city had hired the engineering firm GRAEF to inspect the "sub-surface" layer and drainage systems in Hart Park's artificial-turf football stadium and playground to provide a more detail assessment of the repair needs. That will help determine the city's cost and timeline.
As for the Muellner Building, the city completed extensive renovations just last year, a project that topped $5 million, which the city said was mostly funded through grants and private fundraising. Krutsch and Simpson said that renovation project included moving some of the building's systems out of the reach of floodwaters, but the August flooding still damaged some key appliances, including the boiler, water heater and furnace.
When repairs get underway, they said, the city expects to move the rest of those systems above the flood plain.
Although a definitive timeline for full repair and reopening remains elusive for now, plenty of work has already been done and continues at Hart Park. Under sunny skies Sept. 16, crews could be seen through the football stadium's fences piloting skid-steer loaders to carry out damaged materials for disposal. Only a layer of gravel remains of what was the playing surface, though the oval running track that circles the football field appears in good shape.
With the lower half of the playground encircled in security fence, families with young children still took advantage of the large green slide and jungle gym on the open side of the playground closer to the train tracks. And skateboarders appeared to have barely missed a beat at the skate park.
A sign on the front door of the Muellner Building indicates that it and the senior center are closed. As of early Sept. 16, the last update from city government's website suggested it could reopen by the end of this month, but after Tosa Forward News inquired about that timeline, the city posted new information saying it had been delayed to "some time in October."
In the meantime, crews inside were cleaning up the room where the Wauwatosa Curling Club lays down ice each winter for its ice arena. Through an open back door, a worker could be seen painting one of the arena's walls. Though the basement club room is on a long path to recovery, city officials said it's still possible that the ice arena could be ready in time to open a new season.
