O’Fallon wins innovation award for O’Day Park

On Aug. 17, O’Fallon interactions director Tom Drabelle released a press release announcing that the Missouri Municipal League (MML) had actually honored the city with the MML Innovation Award for O’Day Park. The award honors exceptional projects across Missouri that boost the lifestyle for Missouri cities.

O’Fallon’s award is for the “extra-large city” category covering cities with populations of more than 30,000. In the city St. Louis location, other such cities consist of St. Louis, St. Charles, St. Peters, Florissant, Chesterfield, Wentzville, Wildwood and University City.

“MML recognized the O’Day Park project for the city’s use of an ingenious, diverse strategy to address environmental issues, maintain the natural character of the land, protect the environments and ecosystems native to the location, and save and recycle water for irrigation throughout the park,” Drabelle discussed. “The task likewise created an experience play ground and provided indoor and outside occasion area. The brand-new park pleased a need for additional leisure area within the community and expanded the footprint and special offerings of O’Fallon’s park system.”

As laid out on the O’Fallon website, O’Day Park covers 57 acres and uses the area’s first special “experience play area” for children of any ages. Visitors can use the climbing up wall, group swings, slides, rope course, wood log climbers, slides and a water function with a mini-flowing stream. The park has group camping for youth groups and a “Teenager Overlook.”

The park consists of the O’Day Lodge meeting and banquet center, an outdoor amphitheater, miles of paved and unpaved paths, walking trails and pavilions for picnics.

“Funding for O’Day Park was supplied by a bond issue authorized by O’Fallon citizens in 2016,” Drabelle discussed. “The O’Day Park task team consisted of Mayor Costs Hennessy, the O’Fallon City Board, the parks and entertainment and engineering departments, SWT Style and Browse Structure Solutions. It opened to the general public on April 27, 2019.”

On a current hot afternoon, vehicles in the parking area for the adventure playground had license plates and license plate frames showing people from O’Fallon, St. Peters, St. Louis County and Illinois. Most of children using the playground appeared to be in between 2 and 12, and, not remarkably, the most popular activity was the water function and its gently flowing stream.

“This was a task that we had dreamed about for years,” Drabelle stated in an interview on Aug. 21. “To see it all come together and have our fellow cities honor our efforts is terrific. We are grateful to our elected authorities, our parks and entertainment group and our style partner SWT Style for helping to make this dream a reality.

“But the genuine reward is to just pertain to the park on a Saturday afternoon. You see a beautiful wedding event, kids playing on the playground, people hiking or running, and a family event for a picnic, all at the same place. The park actually has something for everybody.”