"This is going to be an incredible gathering place."
Holland Mayor Nathan Bocks thinks the new Window on the Waterfront Park will get people off their phones and onto ice skates.
“It’s awfully hard to look at your phone when you are ice skating.”
The park will have a skating rink, refreshment stand, restrooms, and picnic areas. City manager Keith Van Beek says the idea started years ago with retired schoolteacher Frank Kraai, who gave a one-million-dollar gift.
“It really starts obviously with Frank Kraai who had a beautiful vision for this area for a long time and matched that vision with a lead gift.”
The city now has over 11 million dollars budgeted for the ice rink complex, more than 80 percent from private donations that councilman Quincy Byrd says started with Frank Kraai.
“He wanted everyone in one place having a great time.”
A groundbreaking ceremony is planned for Tuesday April 23rd. Construction will take about a year.
“It’s never been in my mind a matter of if we should do it, it’s always been how can we do it."
