A highlight of the Wilson Brewer Park Foundation Board meeting Wednesday night was news that the park’s new website is now up and available online. The new website also has a new address: wilsonbrewerparkvillage.com.

The website is the work of foundation board member and Treasurer Tamiann Parrott. Last fall, Parrott secured several quotations for development of a new website. These ranged in cost up to $1,200. While it’s certainly possible to pay more — much more — for a new website, the board felt budgetary caution required an even lower development cost.

Parrott then proposed the board work with website development company WIX. The firm, headquartered in Israel, has clients in 190 countries and claims 85,000 new websites are developed each day with its suite of do-it-yourself website tools.

Parrott then used the templates from WIX to put together the site, arrange for hosting and access to search engines such as Google and, recently, open the site to public use.

Total cost?

“About $200 for the first year,” according to Parrott.

She stressed the site remains a “work in progress.”

For now, it fulfills the basic functions of giving users a concise history of each of the six historic buildings on the museum campus, contact details, address, telephone and email, for those wishing to contact the park, and even an online booking facility.

“Don’t pay too much attention to the calendar or prices shown there,” Parrott cautioned. It is, she stressed, a tool that will go through continued development before becoming fully functional.

With the onset of spring, drywall installation and painting at the First Hamilton County Courthouse will resume, as soon as air temperatures reach a sustained level of at least 50 degrees. That work will largely complete restoration of the building, which received major funding from Hamilton County. The Foundation board has yet to decide how it will use the space inside the courthouse or interpret it to visitors.

A major initiative of the board right now is to begin restoration of the historic Illinois Central Railroad Depot, a 123-year-old clapboard building that’s home to most of the museum’s collection.

Bids have been received to replace the vertical siding around the depot with 32-inch Louisiana Pacific beadboard, and paint the entire building as quickly as contractors can get the job done.

Later this year, it’s hoped that construction might begin on replacing the wooden platforms that completely surrounded the building when it was in railroad service. The original platforms were removed when the depot was moved to its present site in Wilson Brewer Park in 1971.

The board, aware that the park needs modern, accessible public restrooms, is moving forward with plans to design and construct a separate building immediately east of the depot, to house the new facilities. It is expected to occupy the site where today a large ash tree, succumbing to Emerald Ash Borer disease, presently stands.

There will be considerable activity this year leading up to the park’s May opening. The board has set Saturday April 5, as “spring clean-up” day, and is asking for volunteers from the public for help. Bring your own rakes, large trash bags, and strong backs to the park at 1 p.m. Work will continue through the afternoon until the job is done.

An Easter egg hunt will take place at the park Saturday, April 12, from 10 a.m. to noon. The event, planned and hosted by Trinity Lutheran Church, Webster City, is open to everyone.