GREENFIELD — Nearly one year ago, Greenfield's Honey Creek, located within Konkel Park, was anything but pleasing to the eye. Now, it's almost unrecognizable.
"It's a major transformation," said Alderman Bruce Bailey
In its original state, Honey Creek caused major flooding issues for the city.
"When it would rain, we would have flooding south of here where they had to close the road off," said Jeff Katz, the director of neighborhood services for the City of Greenfield. "Honey Creek was severely degraded and plugged with silt over the years and that's why water couldn't flow through it very well."
That was the main reason why city officials approved a nearly $3 million restoration project for the creek back in 2019 to reduce flooding in the area. And after starting construction last August, environmental crews were able to do just that.
"It's just over a mile of stream restoration and stream bank stabilization, there's over six acres of floodplain restoration and wetland restoration, there's 1,800 feet of additional stream channel," said senior biologist Nick Connor. "The total amount of extra flood storage throughout this project is over 1,000,000 gallons of stormwater."
But the project went further. Crews also planted more than 700 trees throughout the area to enhance plant and animal habitats, improved the water quality, added fishing piers and bridges, created a creekside nature trail, and more.
"To be able to walk through it, and see all the effort that was taken, and how the earth was moved, and the water was moved and it's all ecological for nature. It's almost overwhelming trying to get my head around it," said Wendi Connor.
And now, it's an area that officials believe will be enjoyed by families for years to come.
To learn more about the project, click here.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
