PRINCEVILLE —As a memorial to his wife and a tribute to the village that provided a good life for him, Dean Troutman is donating land for a 5.56-acre park on the north side of Princeville.

“I wanted some type of a memorial for my wife who passed away a little over a year ago, and I wanted to give something back to the Princeville community because I had a good life here and I felt I should give something back,” said Troutman, who moved from Effingham County to Princeville with his wife Peggy in 1949. “This park idea was something I could do both in the same project.”
Located between Illinois Route 91 and Town Avenue in north Princeville, just south of the County Tradesmen Builders building and the Leaps and Bounds Daycare building, Troutman Park will include a Junior Football League field, baseball/softball diamond, picnic pavilion, walking path, playground and concession/restroom facility.
“There will be something for everybody,” said Troutman, who retired after 23 years as the manager of the grain elevator in Monica.
Nearly a year after his wife Peggy died on July 26, 2010, Troutman, 80, purchased 5.65 acres of land for the park that currently serves as a corn field, for $100,000.
According to Kelly Jenkins of the Princeville Civic Association and the Historical Association of Princeville, the development of Troutman Park “has come forward very rapidly.”
“It was late summer when Dean kind of approached me and asked me about knowing if any property was available and that he was interested in doing this,” said Jenkins. “I got in contact with a couple of people. We found that this piece of property was actually for sale and he made contact with people who were selling the property and he had it purchased within two weeks, so it all happened pretty quickly.”
Troutman has agreed to match donations up to $75,000 for the completion of the park. Currently, the Troutman Park Steering Committee is soliciting donations of cash and labor for the completion of the park. The committee is also researching grant opportunities.
The committee has already received one donation of $10,000.
Naming rights for the JFL field, baseball/softball diamond, picnic pavilion, playground and concession/restroom facility are available to large donors.
The committee hopes to break ground on the construction of the park this year.
“It was a cornfield and the corn just came out,” said Jenkins. “We are hoping to break ground yet this fall — doing some ground leveling and that sort of thing to get it in preparation for planting grass seed and stuff in the spring. Things will start really moving along in the spring.”
Troutman Park is tentatively scheduled to open next fall with the completion of the JFL field.
“If everything goes according to plan, we’re hoping that next fall JFL will be playing on the field,” said Jenkins. “We (the Princeville JFL team) currently share the high school field and it makes scheduling and everything pretty difficult. We’ve even had situations where games in the JFL were canceled because we had a lot of rain and they didn’t want us tearing up their field for their home football game and that sort of thing. So the JFL is kind of excited to have their own field.”
The completion of the remainder of the park “will kind of depend on funding,” said Jenkins.
“Stuff will be set up in phases and as money comes in, they’ll get slated to be completed,” said Jenkins. “We’re hoping within a year and a half that it will pretty well be completed.”
To donate funds for Troutman Park, contact Alan Wendt at (309) 385-1916 or send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .