Park damaged by floods could reopen soon in downtown Leavenworth

Landing Park could be open in time for Memorial Day weekend, a city official said.

The downtown Leavenworth park has been closed since it was flooded by the Missouri River in March. But city personnel have started to clean the park.

Steve Grant, director of the Leavenworth Parks and Recreation Department, was using a uniloader Thursday to pick up silt and sand from the park.

“Basically it’s just scraping it off,” he said of the work.

Grant estimated that 95 percent of the material left behind by the flood is sand.

He said the sand and silt are now being used to rebuild areas of the river bank that were washed out by the flooding.

The city of Leavenworth experienced its second worst flood on record earlier this year. The Missouri River rose to 31.3 feet in March. The river reaches its flood stage at a depth of 20 feet.

Grant said the Parks and Recreation Department has been short-staffed in recent weeks with grass mowing and other park activities. And this has delayed the reopening of Landing Park.

(Read more: Leavenworth Times)