website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
Brandt-Quirk
Park
[Quarry
Park]
1969
05 06 PROGRESS REPORT ON DEVELOPMENT OF
John Steber
of the Watertown Park and Recreation Department spoke on the progress of Quarry
Park to the Watertown Lions Club. The
meeting was held at the Watertown Country Club.
The director spoke on the history of the park and future plans for
development. He illustrated his remarks
with a slide presentation. Steber said the Quarry Park trail opened in spring of 1981
and the Park and Recreation Commission began actively looking for a large
parcel for a community park. In April of
1986, 74 acres was acquired for a park.
An archaeological study costing $1,148 had to be done before any
development could take place. Approval
was received in July of 1986 for $30,000 in development funds. WDT
1985
09 25 Watertown
has received the maximum amount of eligible federal aid to acquire 74 acres of
land for the future development of Quarry Park.
A spokesperson from Sen. Robert Kasten's
office said the Department of Interior has granted Watertown $92,500 in land
acquisition funds. The money will be used toward the purchase of the 74 acres
of west side property, previously owned by Herbert Lunde. The new property, when combined with
previously designated Quarry Park land, will eventually give Watertown a 166
acre park. City officials hope to begin
formal planning work on the facility next year. WDT
1990
054 08 City
park officials will unveil the final plans for the development of Quarry Park
at a meeting at the Watertown Senior Center, 7 p.m., Wednesday. Tim Bablitch of Gremmer-Bablitch Architects Engineers will explain the
master plan for the park, which is expected to become Watertown’s major
recreational facility when completed.
John Steber, director of the park, recreation
and forestry department, said the firm’s plans will guide development of the
park in the coming years. He hopes that
residents will like what they see. WDT
1999
08 18 The Park, Recreation and Forestry Commission will consider approving the master plan of Brandt/Quirk Park Tuesday when it meets with engineering firm Bonestroo & Associates of Mequon. The public is invited to attend and offer input on designs for the park’s recreational facilities, which include a youth baseball center, skate park/BMX facility, tennis and basketball courts, soccer fields, a nursery and parking lots. Rest rooms, concession stands and a shelter adjacent to the soccer fields are included in designs. WDT
08 27 An initial review of
plans for the youth baseball complex in the developing Brandt/Quirk Park
revealed a shocking conclusion - the center will cost about $200,000 more to
construct than previously estimated.
“This was a shocker,” said John Steber,
director of the Watertown Park, Recreation and Forestry Department. Steber said the
initial estimate for the 11-acre Brandt Baseball Center was $612,000. Now, the planning firm Bonestroo,
Rosene, Anderlik &
Associates is saying the same facility will cost $812,611. Steber said the
additional cost stems from an oversight by Bonestroo
in its initial estimate. That figure did
not include $78,365 for a storm sewer and field drainage system. There were also a number of other add-ons
that increased the cost projection, he said.
WDT
09 04 Youth Baseball Complex—Almost a quarter
million dollars was lopped off the price of a youth baseball complex at the
developing Brandt/Quirk Park on Watertown’s west side through discussions
Tuesday. The Watertown Park, Recreation
and Forestry Commission identified 13 areas in which money could be saved,
allowing the project’s cost to come in at projections. The commission was informed Aug. 24 that
there were cost overruns of approximately $250,000 for the proposed development
of the park. WDT
09 30 The Watertown Tennis
Association has kicked off a $100,000 fund-raising effort for the development
of Brandt/Quirk Park with a $7,500 donation.
Those funds have been given to the Watertown Area Community Foundation
where they will be held until the goal is reached. The $100,000 drive from the private sector is
part of an overall $1.3 million financing package for the 2000 full development
of the city's newest community park. WDT
2000
02 09 BRANDT/QUIRK
PARK FUND-RAISING EFFORT
In an effort to lay the
foundation for the proposed Brandt/Quirk Park, a fund-raising effort of selling
bricks is under way, according to John Schloemer,
brick coordinator. Bricks are being sold
in several businesses throughout the community with proceeds going to an effort
to raise $100,000 in private funds for the development of the Brandt/Quirk
Park. The fund-raising committee held a
meeting last week and “we are encouraged by the sales because we have not done
a lot of promotion yet,” Schloemer said. As of last week, about 30 of the bricks had
been sold, he said.“
In some regards this is encouraging because we have not been working at
it yet.” WDT
05 04 The Watertown Park and
Recreation Department is holding a 12-hour baseball fund-raiser May 20 at
Riverside Park. Funds raised during the
baseball marathon will be directed to the development of the Brandt/Quirk
Park. The fund drive is to assist the
private sector's donation of $100,000 to the overall $1.4 million need for the city's
newest community park. The plan is to
have the park constructed by the fall of this year. WDT
09 24 Brandt/Quirk Park, the gem of Watertown's park system,
was dedicated in two programs Saturday morning that emphasized the
public-private partnership that made its development possible. Several hundred onlookers, in addition to
400-500 youth soccer players using the facilities as a fund-raiser, paid
tribute to the Brandt-Quirk families for their major grants that made the
development of the park possible this year rather than many years in the
future. The Quirk Foundation gave
$500,000 to the park. Dr. James Conley,
who spoke on behalf of the Brandt-Quirk family, said, “It has been a great
satisfaction to us to help develop this park. It is a magnificent gift for the
young people of Watertown. It has been a
great undertaking and it would not have happened without the support and
efforts of our mayor (Fred Smith) and the city staff.” WDT
2013
11 13 SECURITY AT BRANDT/QUIRK
PARK
For the past 10 years, the
Brandt/Quirk Park concession stand has been considered a soft and easy target
for would-be vandals and burglaries.
However, it will be much harder to break into moving forward thanks to a
donation from the Earl and Eugenia Quirk Foundation.
The Earl and Eugenia Quirk
Foundation has agreed to donate $11,400 to the Watertown
Police Department to install a security system at the concession stand,
considered a soft and easy target for would-be vandals and burglaries. The security system will be made up of seven
wireless connectivity cameras streaming motion sensitive images to the police
department. When the motion sensors are tripped, the system will email or text
message the communications center an alert.
Since 2003, the concession stand has been burglarized 14 times, with an
estimated loss of $5,449. The stand itself has been damaged 37 times, costing
an estimated $10,821.
2015
10 01 CLAUDE HELD
HONORED
Attorney Claude Held of
Watertown, longtime legal counsel for the Earl and Eugenia Quirk Foundation,
was honored at a retirement dinner last week at Oconomowoc Lake Club after
serving 45 years in that capacity. The
dinner was attended by 25 current and past members of the board of directors of
the foundation. A special guest was Virginia Quirk, 93, the only living
original member of the board of directors who traveled from Naples, Fla. to
attend the event.
The foundation was established in
1962. A few years later Held joined the
then Brandt Automatic Cashier Company
where he became the company’s legal counsel, a member of the senior management
team and a corporate officer. He also
became legal counsel for the family foundation.
In addition to his legal role with the foundation, he was a key
confidant of the board members as they sifted through many requests for
community funding.
He was an integral part of many
of the philanthropic projects the foundation has taken over the years. One of the largest was the development of
Brandt/Quirk Park. WDTimes article
Cross References:
History of Watertown,
Wisconsin