Most older cities boast some sort of town square, a green space or commons in the city's center that serves as a gathering point for locals, such as Ann Arbor's Diag, Detroit's Campus Martius or Plymouth's Kellogg Park.
Saline doesn't have a green space of similar caliber, but a group of local residents are trying to change that. The Friends of Henne Field are working to turn the 8-acre park near downtown into the suburb's town square.
The 60-year-old park is 1.5 blocks from Michigan Avenue, Saline's main drag. It's bordered by Bennett, McKay, North Ann Arbor and Harris. Those streets have traditionally encompassed three baseball fields, some grass and trees.
The Friends of Henne Field are quarterbacking an effort to redesign and revitalize the park. The $1.3 million project, which just began, will create two little league baseball parks, a performance pavilion, walking trails, work-out stations, benches, historic-looking streetlights and a small sledding hill. The entire project is expected to take two years to complete, however parts of the park will reopen next summer or fall.
Local officials expect the project to have at least two significant impacts on the community. (1) They see it as a way to bolster community interaction by creating a centralized gathering place and (2) they hope it will spur more development in Saline's downtown.
"It's the basis of building our downtown in a north/south direction as opposed to the east/west along Michigan Avenue," says David Rhoads, treasurer of the Friends of Henne Field.
The project is being paid for 0.8 mills CARES millage and an assortment of grants and donations the Friends of Henne Field have assembled.
The field was given to the Saline Area Schools in 1948. It's named after Edward Henne, the son-in-law of the man who established the first telephone system in Saline.
Source: David Rhoads, treasurer of the Friends of Henne Field
Writer: Jon Zemke
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