For the first time in its almost 200-year history, Bartholomew County government has a full time parks director.
Rich Day, 52, became the county’s first Parks Supervisor in January. As warmer weather settles in now, Day will begin overseeing five part-time seasonal workers who will work until mid-October.
Day has long understood a great deal about the attributes and disadvantages of the 12 rural county parks. He worked four years in maintenance for those facilities before being chosen for the new position.
“Making all county-owned parks compliant with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) must be a top priority,” Day said.
Making improvements to ball diamonds at four of the county’s smaller parks is another priority, Day said.
Three of those will be needed to accommodate practices for the Bartholomew County Youth Baseball League, said Bartholomew County Parks Board President Dennis Pierce.
In recent years, league teams have been practicing and playing at Ceraland, a private park on County Road 525E. But after Ceraland installed new astroturf on seven of their diamonds, the league was informed they can only practice one day a week at the private park, Pierce said.
So earlier this year, representatives of the Youth Baseball League asked the county park board permission to practice at ball diamonds at the Elizabethtown, Rockcreek and Petersville park facilities, Day said.
Meanwhile, Wayne Park is needed by another group. Last spring, the Demand Command baseball and softball program offered to upgrade two non-lighted diamonds in the park near the junction of State Road 11 and County Road 1100N, Pierce said.
Although fundraising is required to make expensive improvements, members of Demand Command have agreed to work this year with Day and his employees on maintenance and upkeep at the Wayne Park diamonds, the parks superintendent said.
“All of this gives us more of an opportunity and incentive to try and approve those parks,” Day said. “We don’t want to close any of them. We’re looking for niches for all of our parks.”
Within limitations
For decades, the Bartholomew County Parks have worked on a shoestring budget — and they still have to pinch pennies, Pierce said. The 2020 budget for the county parks total $298,527 — a far cry from the $4.89 million budgeted for the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department.
Prior to this year, the county parks only had a maintenance staff of five part-time employees. Due to financial limitations, each could not work more than 25 hours a week, Pierce said.
Since the county has 12 parks in different sections of the county, the part-timers spent a lot of time driving from facility to facility, Day said. And during the recent rainy springs, there was often only enough time to perform routine maintenance such as mowing grass, so there was no time, manpower or money to make actual improvements.
Pierce is optimistic that with Day supervising the parks system, there will be noticeable improvements in the future.
In recent years, members of the county park board haven’t been shy about admitting that Dunn Stadium, located on Spears Street, south of Garden City near the county fairgrounds, and Heflen Park, located on County Road 700N southeast of the Indiana Premium Outlets near Taylorsville, were the largest revenue generators in the county park system. Together, those two facilities bring in more than $40,000 annually in revenue.
Upcoming projects include improving the BMX track northwest of Dunn Stadium, possibly to the degree where it might attract some national competitions, Pierce said.
Other improvements upcoming including expanding the concession stand, replacing the ball diamond bleachers, putting roofs on dugouts, adding a special soil made specifically for ball diamonds, putting up some new light poles and adjusting all the lights for night games, the two parks representatives say. They also submitted a grant application to the Columbus Area Visitors Center for funds to replace the playground, Day said.
But there is a concern about visitors finding their way to those ball diamonds. Access to Dunn Stadium will be either restricted or detoured June and July while work progress at the overpass going up at the junction of State Road 11 and Jonathan Moore Pike. This will require that all visiting teams who come to play in tournaments are given special instructions on how to make it to Dunn, Pierce said.
Other parks and plans
This year, a good deal of resources will be put on making improvements at Anderson Falls Park, where a number of upgrades and maintenance projects took place last year to counteract vandalism or neglect, according to Day and Pierce. Public concern about Anderson Falls, located off County Road 1140E south of Hartsville, was a strong factor in the decision made by elected county leaders to hire a full-time supervisor, Pierce said.
Upcoming plans at Anderson Falls include the installation of a safer pedestrian path from the parking lot to the falls itself, Day said. He also wants to improve the north side of the walking trail by the shelter house, as well as lay down new blacktop, he added.
Heflen Park, located at 433 W. County Road 700N, received a substantial upgrade in the early fall of 2018 when a rotting boardwalk was removed and a 425-foot replacement was installed. The labor-intensive project was the result of 107 volunteers from Cummins Inc. who worked over seven days, Pierce said. The boardwalk has been a popular fishing spot, and special events including weddings have occurred there.
A grant is being sought to convert the county facility east of Clifford, off County Road 550N, into a pollinator park with flowers and other native perennials, Day said. A similar project was undertaken along areas of Pleasant Grove, near the Cummins Tech Center is Columbus.
There’s also a proposal in the very early stages of developments that might eventually establish a 13th county park at a yet-undetermined location, Pierce say.
Partners and friends
So how can all of these improvements become a reality with such a small budget? There are actually a number of ways.
When the Bartholomew County Park Board submitted a professionally-developed five-year-master plan in early 2019, the county became eligible to receive several types of grants through a variety of different funding sources.
But one resource provided to the county parks that some consider more valuable than money: partners and friends.
In the “Adopt-A-Park” program created last year, a team of volunteers from Toyota agreed to assume responsibilities at Dunn Stadium, while several teams from Cummins Inc. offered to take on park projects wherever they are needed, Pierce said.
“We have already been able to complete a lot of projects with these teams,” Day said. “Without (corporate volunteers), we would not be having this upward trend.”
There is also Bartholomew County maintenance director Rick Trimpe and his staff, who have agreed to assist the parks staff for some improvements at Anderson Falls.
Two other long-standing friends of the rural parks are county highway superintendent Dwight Smith and county highway engineer Danny Hollander, Day said.
“It’s unbelievable how the county garage will jump to help us,” Day said. “They know our struggles, so their doors are always open to us.”
But both Day and Pierce say they are especially grateful for help provided from the Columbus Parks and Recreation Dept.
Much of that assistance is arranged by Travis Tindell, athletics facilities supervisor for the city parks, Day said.
“I lean on him a lot,” Day said. “I don’t have all the right equipment, and I’ll be the first to say I don’t know everything.”
