South Bend breaks ground on Leeper Park revitalization

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- The City of South Bend broke ground on a revitalization project to help increase accessibility at Leeper Park.

The historical park will soon have an added A-D-A accessible playground, a historic fountain, a formal garden and A-D-A accessible paths.

City officials said they are taking community input very seriously and even plan to incorporate ideas from Madison School students.

“So we interfaced with some of the students and had them draw out what they thought the park could look like, we overlaid that with some of our professional drawings and came up with some really neat things that are pretty darn close to what the children were asking for,” Executive Director of Venues, Parks, and Arts Aaron Perri said.

The first phase is to be completed by the end of July and the second phase will start in the fall.

The second phase includes adding a new boardwalk in the area of the old duck pond.

The duck pond was recently drained and the animals that inhabited the area were sent to a zoo for rehabilitation.