$1.2M investment into Limestone’s Hawkins Park complete

LIMESTONE – On a steamy, 95-plus-degree-day, Limestone Park District board member Mark Messerle approached Hawkins Park.

The finishing touches on a $1.23 million upgrade had just been completed.

The only thing awaiting the full opening of the park along Tower Road was waiting for the concrete apron to the 127-space asphalt parking lot to fully cure.

As he approached a pair of fellow park board members, Messerle couldn’t pass up the moment. A joke was in order.

“I knew we forgot something,” Messerle said. “We forgot to add air conditioning.”

Board president and 23-year-board member Rose Gianotti wasn’t about to be outdone.

“This is OK under the pavilion,” she responded. “It’s not bad here.”

Seated around one of the four picnic tables under the pavilion’s roof, board members couldn’t hold back the smiles they had looking out at the completed upgrade at the 14-acre park, which had been aided by a $500,000 state Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant.

The park board matched the $500,000 OSLAD grant with money it had saved during a span of several years and also two gifts to the project.

One gift being a $100,000 donation from an anonymous donor and the second, a $150,000 gift from area resident Alex Panozzo.

The rundown of upgrades:

· $383,000 – 127-space asphalt parking lot

· $352,000 – public restroom

· $293,000 – second playground at park

· $142,000 – two artificial playing surface bocce ball courts.

The project was designed by Piggush Engineering of Kankakee, and the upgrades were completed by R&R Construction of Bradley.

Construction began in October 2024.

Panozzo offered his contribution in honor of his parents, who owned and operated the Tony Panozzo fruit and flower store along Illinois Route 17 West for many years.

Lifelong Limestone area residents, Alex said his parents loved giving to the community and when he learned this project was in need of some financial assistance, he placed a call to Gianotti to see if he could help.

It didn’t take her long to accept the gift.

“I said if you need any extra capital, I could put some money in,” Alex said. “This is something for the public.”

Alex said his parents had deep love for Limestone.

While familiar with bocce ball, Alex said his parents were far from skilled players.

“But they liked to make people happy,” he said.

It would appear the mission of the park board, Panozzo and the unnamed second private donor have successfully completed this quest.

“We had talked about this for at least five years,” park board vice president Doug Krippel said. ”We wanted this park upgraded."

The park opened this week. The park board also operates the approximate 1-acre River Bend Park and the 120-acre Limestone Park, which is dominated by five baseball fields, three of which have lights.

“We had looked at a playground, but ideas kept getting bigger and bigger,” Gianotti said.

For an organization which has only an annual budget of about $200,000, big plans can be hard to satisfy.

But, the board proved where there is a will, there is a way.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said. “We’ve saved for years. We need to be responsible. I can’t wait to see the kids back out here.”

And while the cost is high for an organization the size of the Limestone Park District, the hope is the sticker shock will fade in time.

“Twenty years people won’t remember the cost, but they will be using the park,” Messerle said.