If you had driven past the site of Little River Park a year ago, you would have seen woods and a quiet stretch of water. Drive past it today, and you will hear pile drivers at work, see crews along the Linear Corridor, and watch boardwalk sections rise over Little River's tributaries. Construction is underway, and what is rising is remarkable.

When voters approved our parks bond with 87% support, they did more than fund a series of projects. They issued us a charge to build something worthy of Woodstock. What makes this build special never shows up on a site plan. It shows up in the people. Our Parks and Recreation team refined the master plan, the City Council adopted it, and contractors broke ground last August. Their crews work from roughly 8:00am-7:00pm, guided by engineers who are readying the soil, stone, and stormwater for whatever Little River sends downstream.

Rather than preparing all 110 acres at once, we sequenced the work to keep the job efficient and on budget. Crews started in the Linear Corridor, then moved to the Woodlands Park Zone, and will finish at Trickum Road. Despite a wet spring, progress has been steady: 4,400 linear feet graded, 244 boardwalk piles driven, the first tributary crossing is in place, and handrails are up on the Woodlands pedestrian bridge.

All that work is building toward something every Woodstock family will feel. The Trickum Road Zone will gather families under pavilions, allow kids to run loose in a creative play area, and host anglers at a pond with paddle platforms. The Linear Corridor will carry walkers 1.75 miles along the water, flanked by two pedestrian bridges. The Woodlands Zone will have fields for pickup games, shaded trails for a quiet morning walk, and separate dog parks for large and small breeds.

Together, they will roughly double our city's dedicated green space and give Woodstock its largest park. But the numbers only hint at what Little River Park will become. It will be a place for first fishing trips, morning runs, children learning to paddle on calm water, and for neighbors who meet at a pavilion and leave as friends. A generation from now, our children will not remember the vote or the construction updates. They will remember the park and the sense of place it gave them.

We remain on schedule for a ribbon-cutting ceremony late this year. When that day arrives, it will stand as the work of crews, engineers, consultants, and a parks team who poured themselves into getting every detail right. I am grateful for every one of them, and I cannot wait to see Woodstock families walking, paddling, and playing in a park that future generations will call their own.