*This story was originally posted on KTIV.
Right after RAGBRAI left out of Orange City, the city started on renovations to Windmill Park, and the city is being gifted funds to revamp Windmill Park.
It’s on to the next era at Windmill Park, as there are plans for more amenities and more tulips down the road.
Windmill Park is a centerpiece in Orange City, home to many activities throughout the year.
“There has been construction beginning already for really where the majority of our tulips are located,” said Earl Woudstra, the City Administrator for Orange City. “They’re creating a beautiful new area with tulips, sculpture, and a new gazebo. There’ll be some really cool lighting. It’s just going to be a real transformation of our downtown windmill park.”
The revitalization comes as a gift.
Next year marks the 100th anniversary of Diamond Vogel, the paint company founded in Orange City. The company wanted to pay homage to the city with a gift.
Doug Vogel, Vice President of Diamond Vogel said, “Our grandfather, who founded the company he was always interested in promoting Orange City and he he was one of the guys that helped at the beginning of the festival and so forth and helped do the windmill here in Windmill Park and so forth, and so we thought it’d be a natural.”
The idea came from the question, “How can Orange City increase the number of tulips in town?”
“What could we give back to the community? We’ve always loved Orange City, and we’ve always had a vested interest,” said Vogel.
Covering the most ground with the biggest impact, and the city knew the exact spot to add tulips.
“We really felt like right in the heart of our downtown, with Windmill Park, would be where the greatest impact would be. So we’re going to see maybe 30% to 40% more tulips in this area than what there’s been in the past,” added Woudstra.
The design is being prepared by Mike Cedar from Beck Engineering, and the general contractor for the project is Bouma Construction.
Construction began immediately after bicyclists rode out of Orange City at the end of July.
“That Monday morning, the fence was up already, and we actually allowed people in the community to come in and dig out what was the existing annual flowers. A lot of those got relocated to other parts of the community,” said Woudstra.
The recent storms that brought 90-mile-an-hour winds caused some damage to the park. As the revitalization is in progress, so is storm clean-up.
“We’ve been gradually rebuilding these windmills over time, and there was some work needed to be done on the bridge. There is some work that needs to be done on the large molen, and then some of the damage, and the city pump is also going to be moved into that area,” explained Woudstra.
Tulips come from bulbs, and the bulbs need to be planted in the fall.
So visitors will see lots of change shortly in the park, gearing up for the next tulip festival.
“As a city, we are so extremely grateful to the Vogel family and the Vogel Foundation for this gift that they’ve given to the community,” added Woudstra.
The goal is to have this park back up and ready in time for the tool festival in May of 2026.
