Parktober Fest is an Oktoberfest-style celebration at the park

Dover has always taken pride in its park system, with small park settings around the city and at the riverfront in addition to the main park off Wooster and Crater avenues. Though the parks are well maintained, there are projects around the parks that could use some extra attention and fine tuning.

A new nonprofit organization, Dover Community Parks Foundation, has been created to help after a successful effort to repair rotting railroad tie stairs leading from the main park to the band shelter at Deis Hill Park.

Pamela Dummermuth, one of the founders of the new organization, said the mission of Dover Community Parks Foundation is to work with the community and the city parks and recreation department to improve all the parks in Dover.

The group’s first fundraiser is Parktober Fest, an Oktoberfest-style celebration at the park on Saturday, Oct. 7 from 3-6 p.m. Bratwurst, sauerkraut and potato salad will be served, with entertainment by the polka band Down Und Kraut. Adult meals will be $15 while a kids meal of a hot dog, chips and a cookie will be $5.

Lockport Brewery of Bolivar will bring its own specially created root beer for the day. Tickets are available at McDonald Niklaus Framing on the Boulevard, Peterman Plumbing and Heating at Dover or the Parks and Recreation office at 2421 N. Wooster Ave. in Dover.

“It’s planned to be very much a family event,” Dummermuth said. “We really want to get people to come out and have a great time, enjoy the food and music and Dover’s wonderful park.”

In addition to the food and music, people are invited to make donations to the new nonprofit that day.

“It started when there were many people expressing interest in replacing the railroad tie stairs at the park,” Dummermuth said. “There were a lot of comments posted via Facebook about it. So there were several of us who came together and worked with the city to help make that happen. There was grading to be done to make it a little less steep of a climb, and now there are places you can stop and catch your breath. Some of the stairs were replaced with cement, and it’s an easier walk now.”

With that project underway, the group was still functioning informally. “We thought there were other projects to be done, and the best way to have the greatest positive impact was to form an actual nonprofit to help and also to raise funds for future projects and upgrades. Sometimes there are projects that are naturally shuffled to the bottom in the budget process that can now get more attention,” Dummermuth said.

Dover Community Parks Foundation is now governed by an eight-member board of directors.

“The pathway stairs are much better now but still not really complete,” Dummermuth said. “There are still some details to be worked out.”

She said the future will see markers identifying tree and plant species for the park’s many young visitors along the stair path.

The group plans to work with a landscape architect to create a plan for the park’s future. “There has been talk of putting in a dog park, a women’s softball field, a skating rink and other projects. One of the things we’d like to do is to create a plan to incorporate and fund things like this. All this obviously won’t happen overnight. It will take some time,” Dummermuth said.

Visit www.supportdoverparks.org.