Park district prepares to begin final leg of trail

There was reason to celebrate when the Holmes County Park District board convened Thursday, March 19 as members discussed preparations to begin constructing the final phase of the Holmes County Rails to Trails project that began years ago.

The trail progresses through the entire county west to east, with the lone exception being a portion of the trail between state Route 520 near Glenmont, where the most recent trail addition took place, and Killbuck, where the trail would meet up with the new streetscape project.

The board heard from Jen Halverson, park district director, who notified them they had received one bid to complete the construction of the remaining trail.

That bid was Grassbaugh LLC, which presented a bid of $5,196,483.64, which fell well below the Holmes County engineer’s estimate.

The board quickly authorized the bid to expedite the process, with the hope of seeing the project completed by late October.

“We weren’t sure when we were going to bid the project because we were waiting for a final permit to come through from Ohio EPA,” Halverson said. “Not long after that meeting, ODOT decided we needed to bid sooner rather than later.”

With other deadlines for other project permits looming, Halverson said the board moved quickly on the trail project and came away with a strong proposal from Grassbaugh LLC.

“The bid is about $90,000 under the engineer’s estimate,” Halverson said.

Grassbaugh LLC has done a great deal of work on the trail and has become a trusted partner throughout the project.

Halverson said the trail will include a parking lot area near Crow Works in Killbuck, where a rudimentary parking lot currently exists. She said progress on the trail project should begin sometime in May.

She said she has been working with the Rails to Trails Coalition, which has begun tree removal along that strip of land, something she said would have to be done by the end of March.

Another large project the park district will soon undertake is the repainting of the Crissey Memorial Pool in Millersburg.

Halverson said every few years the pool requires repainting, with the prior effort coming four or five years ago.

“You can look at it and tell it needs painting,” Halverson said. “The big test for us is how many Band-Aids we go through toward the ends of the season because there is rough concrete and kids scrape their toes on it. The paint covers it up and seals it.”

The board received three bids for the job, with the lowest bid coming from Ascended Painting from Dublin, Ohio. The bid was for $22,500, and Halverson said the prior painting was around $16,000, so this bid seemed appropriate.

The board accepted the bid since it fell within the threshold of expense, and the bid was awarded to Ascended Painting.

“He listed everything he is going to do, and he’s doing everything we needed, including acid washing it, before they paint it,” Halverson said. “There is a very particular paint type they need to use for pools that allows it to last longer.”

She said the project also will see the pool recalked and resealed, along with doing some crack repair with epoxy.

All the work is expected to be completed prior to the pool opening this summer.

Another topic of discussion was the ball field at Nashville Elementary.

With West Holmes School District set to auction all the district’s elementary schools next year as it prepares to bring all its elementary students together in the new K-5 facility next to the high school, the Nashville community is concerned about what will happen to the ball field, which the community uses frequently.

Halverson said she has been in discussion with community members about the possibility of the park district being awarded the ball field.

“There have always been concerns about what will happen with that baseball field,” Halverson said. “It’s a very nice facility that gets a ton of use. The fear is that if it gets auctioned off with the school, it will get plowed under and turned into something else.”

She said the school board has appraised the land, and because it comes in valued at more than $10,000, it is limited in terms of who it can donate the ball field land to.

“I don’t believe they can donate it to youth baseball, but they could donate it to park districts,” Halverson said. “We’re just getting input and getting (the board members) up to speed to see if the park district would be interested in taking over ownership of the baseball field.”

Discussion quickly centered around including concepts of easements and access for parking with any type of deal to take over the field.

“They are going to have to reserve parking easements and access,” board member Dan Mathie said.

Halverson said the school board members have already spoken to her about creating an access easement because it is landlocked.

Halverson said local families have poured a lot of money and sweat equity into the field, and it does get a lot of community use, adding should the park district take over ownership, the community will be relied on to provide the upkeep of the facility.