A few surprises may emerge when the first draft of a five-year master plan for the Bartholomew County Parks system is unveiled Thursday.
Although suggestions for park improvements are expected, the master plan may also recommend that some existing county parks be abandoned, parks board consultant Kris Medic said.
Closures might be recommended because some of the 12 county parks were created because land was intentionally or unintentionally acquired, not because there was an established need at that location, Medic said.
County parks in this category are often sites where schools were demolished in rural areas such as Grammer, Wayne Township, Petersville and Clifford, county commissioner Carl Lienhoop said.
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Medic and Lienhoop were among 15 individuals — mostly elected and appointed county officials — who met Thursday to discuss the future of the county park system.
During that meeting, liability emerged as a reason for reducing park inventory. For example, county park board president Dennis Pierce indicated the park board does not have a legally required certified technician to maintain playground equipment.
Since $210,981 in public funding will be provided next year for all 12 county parks, local officials agree that financial resources are extremely limited.
But if decisions are made to start getting rid of parks, a political backlash is likely to emerge, Lienhoop said.
“It will be a bit of a thorny issue,” Lienhoop said.
The county has to decide whether it wants to spend time and money on “peripheral things that don’t have much traffic or sink resources into things that are actually making money for the county,” Pierce said.
The three parks that have the highest popularity or generate the greatest amount of revenue are Dunn Stadium in Columbus, Heflen Park near Edinburgh and Anderson Falls Park near Hartsville, longtime park board member Dave Apple said.
Last year, the Dunn and Heflen facilities were largely responsible for generating $39,511 in revenue.
Dunn Stadium, located next to the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds, hosted 38 tournaments last summer, while the stadium’s BMX track attracted more than 1,000 riders, Apple said.
No decisions regard closing parks are expected for several months. However, commissioners chairman Larry Kleinhenz is strongly urging elected and appointed officials to hear planner and former city parks administrator Ed Curtin when he unveils his first draft of the five-year master plan.
The presentation before the Bartholomew County Park Board will be at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the first floor commissioners’ chambers inside the county’s governmental office building at Third and Franklin streets.
After carefully analyzing and studying Curtin’s presentation, elected and park officials should try to have a plan of action for the parks ready by the time budget discussions for 2020 begin late next summer, Kleinhenz said.
The commissioners believe the county parks need a full-time administrator for a number of reasons, Kleinhenz said. Currently, park board members handle most of the administrative decisions, while four part-time and mostly seasonal employees handle the labor.
But three of the five board members — Nancy Hoeltke, Jim Mahoney and Dave Apple — have reached the age where they can be expected to retire soon, the commissioners chairman said.
“We feel we are to the point where we can no longer ask the park board to continue operating with the responsibilities they have traditionally carried,” Kleinhenz said.
Kleinhenz told three county council members in attendance at Thursday’s meeting — Mark Gorbett, Bill Lentz and Evelyn Pence — that he expected council reluctance to expand the county park system.
“I know this is not a good box to open because the worry is that 10 years from now we could have an eight-employee department,” Kleinhenz said. “But I do believe the demands on our county parks are going to increase.”
Gorbett, who is county council president, agreed with Kleinhenz that too much is currently expected from the county park board. He promised that the council will respectfully consider proposals that will emerge out of the five-year master plan.
On Thursday, there was a consensus that if a full-time park administrator were hired, it should be someone who does both physical and administrative work.
“I don’t want to create a position where someone sits in an office,” Lentz said. “We need someone out there who is actually doing the work.”
While there was much importance placed on Curtin’s master plan, Pierce did remind those in attendance that this Thursday’s presentation will be an first-draft document.
“We probably won’t see a working master plan until February or March, at the earliest,” said the park board president, who said the Indiana Department of Natural Resources is expected to request revisions or additions over the coming months.
Since the county will likely be using the master plan to request grants from the DNR, Pierce said it’s important that the state recommendations be taken seriously.
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The first draft of a five-year master plan for the Bartholomew County Parks system will be unveiled at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, when plan developer Ed Curtin will make a presentation to the county parks board
The board meets in the first floor county commissioners’ chambers at the Bartholomew County Governmental Office Building, located at the northwest corner of Third and Franklin streets.
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