"The Board of Park Commissioners ran the park system just the way my little Polish mother runs her household: If we didn't have the cash, we didn't buy anything," said Gary Madrzykowski, Olander's director.
The park district recently paid off the loan that Huntington Bank inherited when it acquired Sky Bank, and last week the park commissioners symbolically burned the mortgage before directing Mr. Madrzykowski to get a cost estimate for engineering analysis of the site for a proposed sledding hill.
"We're just really delighted to have paid off the mortgage," Harold McElmurry, the commission president, said after jabbing a copy of the loan document into the fireplace at Nederhouser Community Hall.
"Plus, we're getting the park up to the full size we wanted," board member Gail Abood said, referring to a 51.5-acre addition purchased in July from Brint Park Holdings LLC, a group of local developers. The firm bought much of the land east of Mitchaw Road between Brint Road and Sylvania Avenue in 2003 when the proposed Desert Village Golf Course project foundered.
When the Brint Park group agreed to buy the property, Olander was offered 60 acres of it. After the park commissioners decided the system couldn't afford it, Brint Park offered to donate 13.33 acres if Olander would buy the rest.
The park system obtained grants of $346,000 from the Clean Ohio Fund and $200,000 from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to offset part of the price. And in 2006, Hanson Aggregates Midwest Inc. donated a conservation easement on 38 acres east of the park property, effectively expanding the park to 98 acres.
Sylvan Prairie opened in 2006 in conjunction with the 5.5-mile Quarry Ridge Bike Trail that circles the park's perimeter and connects it to Fossil Park, Centennial Terrace, Pacesetter Park, and neighboring Timberstone Junior High School.
It features a restored meadow with a playground, entry road, and two parking lots. The $18,000 playground was donated by Brint Park Holdings. Sylvania Township contributed $100,000, over four years, to the road and parking lots' $180,000 cost.
The next planned improvement is the sledding hill. Mr. Madrzykowski said a mound originally built to be an elevated hole for the golf course is potentially suitable, but he told park commissioners last week that samples should be taken "to find out exactly what that pile is made of" and that a layer of topsoil probably will be needed on top.
A similar sledding hill recently built at Sidecut Metropark cost $30,000, Mr. Madrzykowski said, adding that much of that was spent on "gas and trucks" to transport material.
Future proposed improvements include wetlands restoration, a greenhouse, an astronomy center, and a permanent restroom.
But while the park system has retired the loan for the original Sylvan Prairie purchase, it isn't free from debt yet. That's because it also borrowed money for the 51 acres it bought 11 months ago for $875,500 from Brint Park to boost the site's total to just under 150 acres.
While grants covered $495,390 of that cost, a 10-year mortgage was taken out from Huntington for the rest. Mr. Madrzykowski said the park system intends to pay that off in three years.
First Published December 1, 2010, 1:57 a.m.
