By GLEN WERLING
The idea of building an access into Archbold-Wilson Memorial Park off the east end of Lafever Street in Ossian was brought up again at Monday’s meeting of the Ossian-Jefferson Township Park Board.
At the previous meeting of the board, members Meagan Luce, Tim Rohr, Gary Guenin and Jared Kurtz wanted to wait to extend a drive into the park until the board accomplishes its next major goal — flipping The Big Diamond so that the home plates of that baseball diamond and the Minor League Diamond are back to back. A new concession stand will then be built between the two.
However, that could take years to accomplish and Revitalization wants the access drive project to get started as soon as possible. Revitalization has the project earmarked as its next major project to tackle. Revitalization board members Jim Brewer and Larry Heckber explained that the group is committed to paying half the cost of the estimated $15,000 to engineer the road.
Heckber and Brewer Monday night proposed to the park board converting the T-ball diamonds — which are seldom used anymore — into parking for The Big Diamond. That, Brewer argued, should alleviate concerns about the access road splitting in two the existing stone parking lot for the Big Diamond.
But, Kurtz pointed out, there would still be concerns about an access road passing by that close to the third base foul line. Kids chasing foul balls, people sitting in the third base side stands, and children “messing around” behind the stands would still be vulnerable to the dangers of traffic entering and exiting the park.
If the ball diamond is flipped, that concern disappears because the access road would then be outside of the outfield fence, Kurtz said, where few if any people would be walking.
“That whole area makes me a nervous wreck right now,” Luce said, pointing out that traffic accessing the stone lot for the ball diamond can pose a hazard for pedestrian traffic. She has already seen vehicles entering and exiting the stone parking lot nearly clip children playing behind the stands.
Heckber pointed out that events at the park would likely rarely coincide with baseball games.
Direct access to the park from a major street is needed to make the park more visible, Brewer said. Revitalization had hoped to schedule a large car show at the park but the potential organizers of such a show nixed Archbold-Wilson for a location for the show because of how difficult it is to get to the park through Braeburn Drive. Traffic now has to route through the Bunn housing addition.
Town Manager Luann Martin suggested a secondary fence be erected between the access road and the back of the bleachers. Her suggestion wasn’t really addressed by the board, though.
Rohr believed the solution to the problem was making the main access to the park off 900N instead of LaFever Street.
However, Martin said that if that happens then no one will come into town. One of the main reasons behind having the park is to bring people into town, Martin said.
Turning the diamond would be the best solution, the park board members conceded, but doing so would far outstrip the yearly budget of the parks department it was observed by all of the board members.
And seeking an Indiana Department of Natural Resources grant — like the one used to assist in funding the construction of the Archbold-Wilson Event Center — is off the table for at least seven more years.
So that left the request by Revitalization, Brewer and Heckber, still in limbo. Kurtz observed that he wants the time to prove that the baseball league he and the baseball committee are proposing and then hopefully the interest in baseball will follow — and so will the donors.
Luce said that the project has to start somewhere and a couple of successful seasons could get enough local interest individually and corporately to get the project launched.
She directed the attention of the board back to the question at hand. What about an access road to Archbold-Wilson?
Brewer asked about the engineering aspect. Maybe it could be engineered now and worked on later.
Martin suggested that the town’s engineer could add to the study what it would take to flip the diamonds. “If we could get him to put the drive on there and then put the diamond on it to see where everything would need to be I don’t think it would be that much extra,” she said.
Martin will contact the engineer and see is she can get an estimate on how much extra it will be. She planned to get back to the park board and Revitalization with an estimated cost.
Heckber believed that Revitalization would be willing to provide additional funds to offset the cost to the park board for engineering the access road.
The board members also discussed the status of Jenni Milholland as a board member. She has not attended a meeting in several months and Luce said that she was contacted by Milholland about possibly leaving the board.
Luce said she would contact Milholland and have her contact Martin.
The board members also discussed the status of the Northern Wells Junior Baseball League. Kurtz said that everyone involved in youth baseball is on board with the idea of a league, but logistics and prices still need to be worked out, including a flat fee instead of a per-player fee.
“Will we have baseball? Yes we will definitely have baseball, we just need to get it all ironed out,” Kurtz said.
Changing the fee structure to use the diamonds in Ossian will require a change in the town ordinance.
Luce said that the league needs to provide the board with information about what it would like see in a flat fee.
The next regular meeting of the board is set for 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7.
glenw@news-banner.com
