Accessibility Renovations Underway at Popular Iowa Park

The construction of what is called the "most accessible park in the country" is now underway, right here in the Hawkeye state.

Radio Iowa says the park is on the North Shore of Easter Lake Park in Polk County. Polk County Conservation Director Richard Leopold said the new project came about through discussions on how to improve the area.

We were talking with the Disabled American Veterans — we’ve long been looking at doing a pontoon boat or something. So we’ve got assessable docks where people are fishing, but a lot of the surveys were coming back that vets with challenges wanted to fish and they wanted to be on the water

Beyond the crucial value, it will hold to those disabled veterans, it later expanded to an idea for people with all types of disabilities. The groundbreaking took place Wednesday, October 26. While they hope to get a great deal of the work done this year, the bulk will take place next year and Leopold says the project in its entirety should be done in early 2024.

Athene USA is a major donor, and has obtained the naming rights to what will be called the "Athene North Shore Recreation Area"/

According to the Des Moines Register, more than 370,000 Iowans have disabilities, and 240,000 of them are veterans. As Easter Lake Park is already one of the busiest recreation spots in the area, with an estimated 1.3 million visitors annually, another barrier to their enjoyment of life will now be broken with these renovations are complete.