By Matt Mackinder
Clarkston News Editor

CLARKSTON — City officials are looking to add to Depot Park in the coming months and years, and the Clarkston Area Optimist Club is doing what they can to help.
On Aug. 16, the club announced it is committing to donate $25,000 this year and $20,000 each for the next two years ($65,000 total) towards improvements to the park, including a new picnic pavilion.
Clarkston Mayor Eric Haven added that park additions are part of the city’s five-year plan.
“I’m shameless about this, though,” said Haven at the park’s new bridge dedication that was a project of the Optimists and Clarkston Construction Tech students over the past year. “We have a plan, but it is a work in progress for our future. Some of the things we’ve been working on for the last five, six, eight years. It’s coming to fruition and you can feel it here. It’s amazing, and more and more people are getting involved in it.”
Haven said the plan includes three pavilions, a boardwalk that runs through the wetlands all the way to Deer Lake Beach, picnic tables and benches, bathrooms and a bandshell.
“We have five themes in the park – recreation, education, inspiration, commemoration, and repose,” said Haven. “Our projects fit that.”
Donations are being accepted for the projects through the city offices, said Haven.
The bridge, situated in front of the City Hall building near a rain garden, was celebrated with a ribbon cutting that was attended by Construction Tech instructor Steve Wyckoff and four of his students, community members, Optimists, and residents.
“It’s not every day you can get kids out here at 7:30 a.m. in the sun,” said Wyckoff at the dedication. “If I’m not mistaken, we were out here on a Saturday when it was really, really cold. The foundation took a little bit longer than we wanted and we got started a little later, but the kids that came out here and worked on this, they deserve another round of applause.
“You gotta do what you gotta do, and it doesn’t matter if it’s raining or snowing or sleeting or if it’s 90 degrees out. You still have to get out there and work. That’s just the way it works. You can’t get anything done unless you do it. These kids have done that.”
The Optimists also offer a $3,000 scholarship for graduating students going into the trades.

TOP PHOTO: At the ribbon cutting to celebrate the completion of the new bridge at Depot Park on Aug. 16, holding the ribbon are Ken Ermer (left) and John McDonald (right), in back are Clarkston Construction Tech students Mason Thomson and Noah Cunningham, instructor Steve Wyckoff, Ian Dembinski and Kelton Ezell, and in front are Debbie Berry, incoming Optimist president and Michelle Carson, current Optimist president. ABOVE PHOTO: Clarkston Mayor Eric Haven details the city’s five-year plan to expand and make improvements to Depot Park at the new bridge dedication ceremony at the park on the morning of Aug. 16. Photos: Matt Mackinder