“(We haven’t got) as much as what I would like to (be completed), but I consider us still trying to get into phase one,” said Enon Council President Rick Hanna. “Right now our whole goal is to try to get where it does have some basic needs fulfilled for the families where they can play and walk.”
Hanna said they have applied for state and federal grants, but have not received any at this point.
“The village and township are both adamant that we do not want to place any (tax) levies for the park on our citizens. We’re still trying to find funding but not on the backs of the taxpayers,” Hanna said.
The village and the township continue to have periodic meetings regarding the complex. The little leagues seem to be the ones most interested and in need for fields since where they play has safety concerns and is not accessible to most kids who want to play during summer.
“It’s still our main goal to try and get some baseball and softball fields in there, but it will not happen this summer,” Hanna said, explaining they’ve leased fields out to farmers so they could get a little bit of income for the park fund.
What has been accomplished is the parking lot and access road, where events such as National Night Out and Touch-A-Truck have been held so far. They secured a $70,000 grant for park equipment that’s being installed to update or eliminate older playground equipment, and working on a walking path on the perimeter of the north side.
The planned complex will include a playground, an ADA-compliant facility for children with special needs, pickleball, tennis courts, basketball courts, baseball and softball fields, soccer fields and walking trails.
“That’s still our plan to try to do and get it to be a community park for everyone to come out and play in,” Hanna said.
Hanna said one goal is to maybe add increments to the walking path where people could exercise or stretch, or add a walk of fame where there could be different stories or situations that happened around Enon to make the walk more interactive.
The village and township have invested around $750,000 so far for the project, including $566,000 for the property.
The project has had estimates between $7 million and $8.6 million to put in a concession stand, restrooms, soccer, softball and pickleball fields. However, Hanna said if they could come up with $300,000 to $500,000 they could “go ahead and do pretty well” with that amount.
“It’s not going to be the softball or baseball complex that we initially hoped for, but it would allow the kids to have a place where they could actually go and play and then a restroom area for the adults,” Hanna said. “That’s one of our priorities to is to get it up and running where people can use that walking path and just realize there’s a park there and not a corner or soybean field.”
The initial plan when starting this project was to have it completed in seven years, but now that three years have passed, Hanna said they “never expected so many dead ends.”
“We’ve been taking baby steps. My goal is as long as we’re taking baby steps, we’re doing OK,” he said. “We just really haven’t been able to continue taking those steps and I don’t want this to stall ... But right now we just don’t have funding to go ahead and make any of this happen.”
The village and township will continue applying for grants, looking for corporations to help, as well as letting county and city officials know about their plans. They have a fund dedicated to the park itself, so any contributions will specifically be used for this project.
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