By Chad Frey
Newton Kansan
Plans for improvements to one of Newton’s oldest parks will move forward, and be funded namely through private sources, following a blessing of the concept by the city commission, recreation commission and board of education.
The Railer Foundation, headed by Bradley Cook and Joel Smith, met with all three boards May 14 seeking permission to move forward with fundraising for a project to improve Themian Park.
“We approached the principal at Santa Fe to see what we could do to help out and clean up Themian Park for kids whenever they are going out for recess or different things, we could do to create more use of the park itself,” Cook said. “We put our ideas together and have been working on this ever since.”
The Railer Foundation is a fairly new effort, formed to support youth sports in Newton.
“We all got together and pooled our resources to be able to support youth sports here in town,” Cook said. “The soccer club, we have about 200 families in the club. Junior Railer Football has about 125 between football and the cheer group. Junior Railer Basketball right now is new ,… that one there we are serving about 100 to 150 families. For baseball, right now, we are at about 80 families. Add all those up we have about 550 families in the group.”
The pair spent about 20 minutes making a presentation about the park – which was originally created as West Park in 1875. At that same time the city created East Park – a park that became Military Park and now hosts the third Newton Public Library constructed last year and opened this year.
West Park was maintained by a women’s club for several years, then was turned over to the city. In 1899 it was renamed as Themian Park. About 65 years later the school district signed a lease with the city for the park, with a plan for improvements. The school used the park for physical education classes, a practice that continues today for students at Santa Fe 5/6 Center.
That brings things to 2024, and the Railer Foundation seeking permission to raise funds for improvements to the facility from the three entities involved.
The school district leases the park from the city under an agreement created in 1965. The recreation commission does some maintenance on the park, hosting some baseball activities there for four-year-olds each spring.
Kreie commented to the Railer Foundation that when the All Together Now campaign for an inclusive playground at Slate Creek Elementary was launched about three years ago, the Central Kansas Community Foundation was contacted to help. He was told the Railer Foundation has already taken that step.
“Well, raise the funds then,” Kreie said.
His statement was met with applause from members of each board, and a number of people in the audience. It also effectively created a public/private partnership – a structure that led to the creation, construction and opening of the Rhodes Wetlands Park on SW 14th Street and the construction of a new public library.
A committee with representatives from the city, school district and rec commission will be formed map out a plan of what improvements to make – keeping an eye on what the Railer Foundation presented on May 14.
That proposal, which is targeted in phases, includes renovations to the basketball courts, the addition of pickleball courts, the addition of bathrooms, reworking a small soccer field, moving a softball/baseball field and renovating a baseball field.
The committee being formed will review all of the plans and improvements. Appointed to that committee thus far are city commissioner Richard Stinnett and board of education member Ian Long. The recreation commission will appoint a member in the next week or so. Themian Park appears on the next NRC board meeting on May 17.
The most recent improvement to the park came in 2023, when a group of girl scouts earned a Silver Award by raising more than $2,200 and enlisting the design skills of Hutton Construction to create the park furniture out of concrete – a table and chairs that will last for generations. The scouts finished presenting Santa Fe sets of checkers to use on the new table during a board of education meeting Aug. 27, 2023.
