During the summer, Silver Creek’s Highway Department, headed by Bob Bankoski, made a number of renovations. They included paving the track and the entrances to the park, replacing the matting and wood chips on the playground and installing a brand new pavilion roof.

“When the kids are here on sunny days, we’ll be able to pull the picnic tables out and put them out on the cement pad,” Bankoski said. “So now on rainy days, the kids will be able to stay in the park, just under the pavilion instead of going to the church.”

The kids he was referring to are the ones in the popular youth recreation program in Silver Creek. Though they did have to cancel this year’s program due to the pandemic, the park is all set and ready for next year, officials are hoping.

Once called Horseshoe Park, the park has been used for more than 100 years by the village and has always been the center of Silver Creek activities.

Back then, through the 1900s, the park had been used for a semi-professional baseball team, the Silver Creek Horseshoes, for which resident Howard Ehmke played for and eventually pitched in the 1929 World Series.

The park, as in the past, is still being used for various athletic activities and festivals. It is also used for youth recreation, baseball, tennis, playing on the playground, the Grape Festival, and dog walking, among other activities and events.

In 1999, Louis Pelletter, Silver Creek historian, made efforts to introduce a five-year plan for the park, which was successful. The plan included restoring the tennis courts, the ball diamond, the track, adding a playground, all new lighting, and a pavilion.

“Hopefully this will solve the problem for the youth recreation and other groups that use this pavilion,” Pelletter said. “The new roof will help to keep them out of the intense sun and rain, and now they won’t have to go to the church or be sent home when it rains.”