Friends of Haumerson’s Pond propose $241,000 structure; fundraising efforts underway 

By Chris Spangler

Fundraising is underway for a multipurpose shelter building at Fort Atkinson’s Haumerson’s Pond.

Members of the Friends of Haumerson’s Pond are planning to build a $241,270 structure that will provide equipment and vehicle storage, as well as a kitchen, concession stand and pavilion at the Bark River Nature Park site.

Steve Mode, who has taken the title of “Board grand poohbah,” said that the group is seeking to raise $65,000, which will be added to two grants and private donations already received.

Measuring 26-by-44 feet, the building will be located out of the floodplain on the far west end of the site, close to the parking lot.

“It will partly house the equipment we use for taking care of the ice in the winter,” Mode said, citing the ATV used to clear snow from the 3.5-acre skating rink.

Using the ATV rather than the city’s heavy equipment allows the volunteers to get onto the ice to plow earlier in winter, thus lengthening the skating season.

“We’ve got all the attachments for the ATV, hockey nets, hockey sticks and donated skates, all those things to run the park, that we have to store somewhere,” he said. “We usually end up scattering it different places at the end of the season, and that’s a good way to lose it.

“The school district has been wonderful letting us use its (nearby) building to store equipment in, but it’s unheated,” Mode said, adding that the new building will have the ability to be heated, and the ATV can be cleaned of slush and stay dry when not in use.

Also in the structure will be a 10- by 20-foot kitchen with water and electricity. There will be no stove or oven, however.

“One of the things the main warming house doesn’t have because it’s in a floodplain is somewhere to wash dishes,” Mode said. “The multipurpose building will have a nice-size kitchen, all stainless steel, where people can go to prepare and clean up after meals.”

Brooke Franseen, director of the Fort Atkinson Parks and Recreation Department, noted that the kitchen will be used not only for Friends events such as the autumn Haunted Hike and winter Ski, Skate and Hike, but also for public gatherings.

“The city rents the shelter out to so many people, and this will also be a rentable building,” she said. “Other agencies, groups and not-for-profits will be able to rent it for a very small sum and use that for their events.”

The new building will have a storage area for tables, chairs and other items used for shelter rentals, as well as a concession area with windows opening to a pavilion.

“There’s going to be a 24- by 24-foot timberframe portion to go with the style of the original shelter; it is going to be a pavilion where people can picnic, and food can be served out of the concession stand windows,” Mode said.

“It’s got many uses and we want the public to use it,” Franseen added.

And that’s not all.

“To me, probably the most exciting part is that off the north side of the pavilion will be a wood-fired pizza oven,” Mode announced.

The idea goes back to when Mode and builder Craig Roost traveled to Grand Marais, Minn., to learn about timberframing when the original warminghouse was being planned. The workshop organizers cooked supper on a wood-fired pizza oven.

“They served about 80 people in a half an hour. On the way home, I told Craig I would love to see a timberframe shelter, but we’ve got to put in that pizza oven,” Mode recalled.

He said that the Friends of Haumerson’s Pond’s goal is to have Haumerson’s Pond Nights in which the public is invited to enjoy wood-fired pizza, watch movies or enjoy music.

“And that could be an ongoing fundraiser to put money into the park. We’re excited about that,” he added, noting that Jim Brock of Midwest Masonry, who laid all the brick for the original shelter, will build the pizza oven.

Funds sought

Before construction begins, however, the Friends need to raise the final $65,000.

Mode explained that the building’s $241,270 pricetag includes materials as well as the value of in-kind donations and labor.

On Aug. 15, the city was notified that the state Department of Natural Resources had approved a $100,000 grant for the building from its Stewardship Urban Rivers Program. Fort Atkinson was among 95 communities statewide seeking more than $28 million in grant assistance for outdoor recreation projects.

Meanwhile, the Fort Atkinson Community Foundation has provided a $45,000 challenge grant.

“We started planning this building quite a while ago, but COVID stopped it,” Mode said. “We had applied to the foundation for a grant, but at that time, the building was not as multiuse as we have the ability to do now.”

The foundation approved the $45,000 challenge grant for what at the time simply was to be a storage garage.

“After the DNR grant came up and after meeting with the city, they strongly encouraged us to plan big and plan for the future. ‘Let’s make this park really great.’ That’s when we were able to get water in there, and when you have water in there, a kitchen makes sense. It’s just really going to be neat,” Mode said. “And we have to do our Friends of Haumerson’s Pond timber-frame stuff.”

Franseen said this marks the city’s first stewardship grant.

“The reason we were able to apply for the stewardship grant through the DNR is because the Parks and Recreation Department underwent a comprehensive outdoor recreation plan last year, which we haven’t had in 30 years,” she said. “This project was identified in that plan and that is why we were able to apply for these funds.”

Some private funds also have been received for the building project, the first being memorials to the late Jeannette Woods and Vern Zech. Both were early supporters of Haumerson’s Pond.

Woods, a member of the Friends’ board of directors, passed away from cancer on Nov. 17, 2022. Her husband, Floyd, has designated memorials in her name to this project.

Zech, meanwhile, died Sept. 30, 2021.

“He was one of the first people on the board and he was the one who got Haumerson’s Pond off the ground into social media,” Mode said. “That’s when he formed ‘Taking a Stroll Down Memory Lane: Then and Now,’ and he  formed our Facebook site.”

Zech’s family also has given memorials in his name toward the multipurpose shelter building’s construction.

“In honor of both people, we want to open it up to the public, so if anybody wants to donate in their name — or anyone else’s — they can do that,” Mode said.

Tax-deductible contributions for the building may be sent to the Fort Atkinson Community Foundation at 244 N. Main St., Fort Atkinson, 53538, or given via its website, fortfoundation.org. Indicate the gift is for the multipurpose shelter building. The Friends of Haumerson’s Pond’s website and Facebook pages also have donate buttons.

A donor recognition wall will be located inside ton the gable end of the building.

Haumerson family tie

In addition, $7,000 has been received from a nephew of the Haumerson family, Scott Haumerson.

“By chance, I was working with him on another project and I told him about Haumerson’s Pond, and he came down here and said ‘Holy man, this is really neat,’” Mode said. “He’s from the Haumerson family in Racine, where the Haumersons settled and made bricks. So he gave a $7,000 donation.”

He continued: “William F. Haumerson was trained in Racine and then he went to work for Kemmeter Brickyard in Jefferson. Then he left Kemmeter after he learned the trade, came to Fort and bought Haumerson’s from L.M. Roberts, who had the brickyard until 1886.”

Ironically, the bricks repurposed from a Kemmeter family house in Jefferson to build the original warminghouse at Haumerson’s Pond would have been made when William Haumerson was working at the Kemmeter brickyard.

In fact, the Friends of Haumerson’s Pond have some of those cream-city bricks leftover to use in this new building. The group also has brick donated by George Niebler from a home he razed northwest of Fort Atkinson.

“George Niebler had a farm on Banker Road and he loved seeing what we were doing (at Haumerson’s Pond),” Mode explained. “The house was getting dilapidated, so he called me up one day and said, ‘I like what you’re doing. Do you want more brick?’ I said, ‘George, I always want more brick.’ So he donated all the brick.

“We’ll be getting started soon to cleaning mortar off of that brick,” he added, noting that volunteer labor is being sought.

Mode offered a big thank-you to everyone who has helped with this newest project thus far.

“We couldn’t have done it without Brooke. Brooke and all the people at Park and Rec are just fantastic. It’s really a nice partnership,” he said.

Mode noted that he hopes to complete fundraising by midwinter so the building can be constructed next year.

“This is going to make such a difference in this park,” he said. “If we could break ground next spring, that would be a godsend. That’s our goal, and if people respond, that would be terrific.”