Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Article published Feb 10, 2006
What will keep kids busy?
Pickerington will discuss direction of city parks
By ALAINA FAHY
The Eagle-Gazette Staff
afahy@nncogannett.com
PICKERINGTON - Pickerington residents get a say Saturday in the kinds of parks they'd like to see in their community.
Pickerington's parks and recreation committee is holding a meeting Saturday to get public input about park development for communities including Shawnee Crossing and Willow Pond. Committee members will discuss their ideas about what parks and activities would benefit Pickerington.

Committee volunteer Dale Frazier said the city is developing a 10-year parks master plan. The plan will benefit Pickerington residents because it will help committee members better use taxpayer dollars.

''Anything that keeps kids occupied should work well,'' said James Spielberger.

James Spielberger of Pickerington said he doesn't have kids, so it would be nice if the city would keep residents like him in mind.

Spielberger said he would like to see a park where he can bike or do in-line skating.

Steve Carr, parks and recreations director, said trails are the most common response the committee has heard while collecting public input.

Seven parks will be discussed at the meeting Saturday. It's the second such meeting the committee has held to discuss the plan, Frazier said.

The city already has hired a planning company to design a master plan for the parks. The plan will span about 10 years and use community input and research to recommend ideas.

From the plan, the committee will decide what to do with the parks to best serve the city's residents, Frazier said.

Parks to be discussed at the public meeting Saturday:

Colony
Shawnee Crossing
Willow Pond
Preston Trails
Simsbury
Sycamore
Victory

What: Public meeting for Pickerington parks development
When: 9:30 a.m. Saturday
Where: 100 Lockville Road
Who: Open to the public

If you can't make Saturday's meeting but have input about Pickerington's parks, contact Parks and Recreation Director Steve Carr at 614-833-2211.



By Roadrunner

The real headline...

The real headline should be ''What should the city do with worthless land?''

Other than Victory & Sycamore the other properties were either ''donated'' by developers or purchased by the city to settle lawsuits with developers. I love that word ''donated''. Thanks a lot for your donation.

Now the city must maintain the property and call it a park. I also love the signs for the so called parks. How much did those cost?

My family has had so much enjoyment from the generously donated land in Colony Park. We love all of the park attractions.

I wonder...

Would the land have been donated for park use in Colony Park if there were not a huge natural gas pipeline running under it? Hmmm?

Love the green space.... Keep it coming.

Try this. Plant trees that will ultimately take over the park (?“donated?” green space). This will lead to no maintenance and most people I know would love to have their home back up to a wooded area.

Oops, the Gas Company might frown on that. So nix the tree idea. I am curious about the other parkland ''donated'' or purchased by the city. Are there any restrictions on what can be done on it? e.g. major utilities running through or under the property?


By Picnicker

Let's Take a Different Approach

Parks and green space are vital to making this a great community. But let's not confine ourselves to these little bits of land. Let's look at all our wonderful natural resources, and how to make the best of them.

We are blessed, for example, with many small streams. Why not use those to tie together our various communities and subdivisions, and our various parks, by building hiking trails along them? With a little work, for example, we could have a beautiful wooded trail from Haaf Farms to the golf course. Half of it is already built.

We also should be looking at preserving our remaining woodland, and even at expanding it. We could use the small pockets of land to expand the arboritum that's been started near Sycamore Park. It needn't all be in one place.

And we should treasure and expand Pickerington Ponds, perhaps our greatest natural resource. The blue heron rookery that used to exist there (and hopefully still does) was (and hopefully still is) amazing. The waterfowl that the ponds still attract are beautiful.

And how about trying to preserve one of our farms as a working parksite, as another Slate Ridge? We need to preserve our agricultural heritage, and to preserve as well our memories of the families that founded this community.

I'm just getting started. We all need to give this one some thought. If we don't do it now, we'll lose the opportunity forever.


By Yosemite Pam