By GLEN WERLING
Girl Scout Troop 00044 was before the Ossian/Jefferson Township Park Board Monday night to present the board with two bird houses and two butterfly houses that the troop members had made.
While board members Meagan Luce and Tim Rohr were able to accept the houses, they weren’t able to meet in an official meeting because two members do not a quorum make.
Girl Scouts Gracie Torres, Caroline Haiflich, Madalyn Bookmiller, Emily Bennett, Preslie Jones, Kayla Jeffrey, Allie Bennett, Shelby Jones and Aliyah Davis read prepared statements for the board members explaining the features of the houses and how they are to be used.
The houses will be posted at Archbold-Wilson Memorial Park near a storage shed that has been placed in the prairie grass area.
“I didn’t want to make it look like we just threw a shed out there, so I decided to make it a butterfly house,” Martin said.
Not literally. It’s a storage shed that will house the giant chess and checker pieces. But it will be next to the wildlife area with butterfly bushes and with the new butterfly houses, it is sure to attract many butterflies
The shed, which was purchased by the town through a grant from Ossian Revitalization, has a front porch on it. But it will have metal butterfly statues placed around it that have been donated by the Sponseller and Edmiston families.
There will be a large butterfly that an adult can stand in front of to be photographed like they have butterfly wings and there are two smaller butterflies that children may stand in front of and be photographed. The butterflies are being painted by Carissa Neuenschwander.
An information plaque will also be posted nearby encouraging people to post their photographs to social media and then tag OssianParks.
In other business, the board members discussed with Town Manager Luann Martin the creation of a baseball committee. The hope is to create a league that will be operated by the town based on recommendations from the committee.
The 3-member committee will be composed of park board member Jared Kurtz, Ben Jones and Joe Huffman.
Martin also informed Rohr and Luce that the merry-go-round at Melching Park has been removed and she has quotes for a new swingset for the park.
To avoid a conflict with Labor Day, the board plans to meet next at 7 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 29,
glenw@news-banner.com
