Betterment hears from the park district

By Rachel Mendell
Inquirer Edi­tor
The Galion Area Bet­ter­ment Com­mis­sion met Mon­day, Sept. 10 after a sum­mer recess. Speaker for the lunch meet­ing was Bill Fisher from the Craw­ford Park Dis­trict.
First, Fisher answered ques­tions about eagles seen near Amicks Reserv­ior. He explained that there are three known eagles’ nests in Craw­ford County. One nest was so heavy it recently col­lapsed the big sycamore tree it rested in in the north­ern part of the county. He said eagles con­tinue to add to their nests each year with some nests weigh­ing as much as a ton. The tree could no longer hold the weight of the nest.

Fisher guesses the eagles will find another suit­able tree in the area to rebuild next spring. The other two nests are near Iberia and near the reser­voir in Bucyrus.

Fisher told mem­bers of Bet­ter­ment that a 60 pound mete­orite was found in Craw­ford County and was on dis­play at the Nature Cen­ter of Lowe-Volk Park. He said the mete­orite will again be avail­able for view­ing Sept. 22 from 1 – 4 p.m. After that it will be sold to a collector.

Fisher said the Lowe-Volk Nature Cen­ter is try­ing to stay open longer hours. The new Labor Day hours were well received. All parks in the Craw­ford dis­trict (apart from the nature cen­ter) are open to the com­mu­nity from dawn to dusk.

Fisher shared infor­ma­tion on the new Daugh­mer Burr Oak Savan­nah which recently cel­e­brated an open­ing as a state nature pre­serve. It is part of the orig­i­nal prairie, an oasis of sorts of the great prairie of the United States and is part of the San­dusky Plains Prairie. The park con­tains very old burr oak trees, some more than 200 years old. He added the sad news that the June 29 storm took out 10 of those ancient trees, either by break­age or uprooting.

Fisher thanked Galion for help­ing to pass the March levy, which has resulted in more hours open for the Nature Cen­ter (Mon­day – Fri­day, 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Sun­day 12 – 4 p.m.) and no fees to school and church groups for edu­ca­tional pro­gram­ming offered by the park dis­trict. At present the cen­ter is look­ing for a part time nat­u­ral­ist and a part time jan­i­tor. He named groups that have helped the park sys­tem greatly includ­ing the Galion Com­mu­nity Foun­da­tion, the Galion Cham­ber of Com­merce, Galion Rotary Club and the Galion Inquirer. “These part­ner­ships are extremely impor­tant to us.”

Fisher thanked the Galion busi­nesses that donated the mate­ri­als to com­plete the board walk which makes the woods and San­dusky river look­out acces­si­ble to strollers and wheel chairs. The park dis­trict will be pub­lish­ing a book on the Leesville Quar­ries and updat­ing their strate­gic plan and pol­icy pro­ce­dure man­ual in the months to come.

In mem­ber busi­ness, Joe Kleinknecht from the Cham­ber noted new busi­nesses opened in Galion includ­ing the Thrift Shop on Hard­ing Way East, the Ver­i­zon Store in the Geyer’s mall, and the Crack­pot gift shop on Hard­ing Way East. Kleinknecht also noted the Kiwa­nis Pan­cake Day and the Alumni Raf­fle will take place on Sept. 28.

Gene Toy updated Bet­ter­ment mem­bers on city projects includ­ing the street resur­fac­ing of por­tions of Dawsett, Jef­fer­son and Boston. The Rail­road Street Sub­sta­tion con­tin­ues with its upgrad­ing which includes new polls going in to replace the old ones. The Tay­lor Road Com­post­ing Facil­ity will be open three more times this year, Toy said. Dates are Sept. 14–15, Oct. 19–20 and Nov. 16–17 with the hours of 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on those days. Toy warned that the facil­ity is not acces­si­ble from the south, but only from the north because of a county bridge project.

Toy explained fur­ther that the polls in Amick Reser­voir that cut right through the cen­ter of the park will be removed and new ones will replace them along County Line Road. Trees were removed along County Line Road because of them being an obstruc­tion in the city’s right of way as well as roots clog­ging drainage lines and water mains.

Terry Grib­ble said the Cen­ter Y had a good sum­mer swim­ming sea­son. Classes are now open at the cen­ter with 55 to choose from.

Patty Rice Groth reported for the Galion Com­mu­nity Hos­pi­tal Aux­il­iary, say­ing that the recent fund raiser was suc­cess­ful, sell­ing over 700 pot­ted mums. She reminded mem­bers of Bet­ter­ment that they can go on the hospital’s web­site and sign up for aux­il­iary announce­ments. The hos­pi­tal con­tin­ues to bring in more spe­cial­ists, she noted, so patients do not have to go out of town for care.

Elaine Hot­ten­roth announced the suc­cess­ful try-outs for the Galion Com­mu­nity Theatre’s open­ing pro­duc­tion of “Lead­ing Ladies” directed by Jim Hoover. Dates for the new show are Nov. 9 and 10 and Nov. 16, 17 and 18.

Amber Wert­man said the Galion His­tor­i­cal Society’s annual ban­quet will be held Tues­day, Sept. 11 with a theme of the His­tory of Galion Bands. She said the soci­ety has extended Brownella Tours to Fri­days and Sat­ur­days. There will also be free museum days begin­ning with Sat­ur­day, Sept. 29. Sun­day, Sept. 30 from 1 – 5 p.m. is the his­tor­i­cal society’s fall car show.

New Rotary Club Pres­i­dent David Halsey announced the club will be giv­ing dic­tio­nar­ies to all area third grade stu­dents again this year. Trick or Treat, Walk Your Feet will take place this year as well. The juniors and seniors will receive pocket con­sti­tu­tions from the Rotary Club. The group has already started plan­ning the Inde­pen­dence Day Cel­e­bra­tion for July 6, 2013 with plans to expand the all-day event.

Jean Plack noted that the Golden Age Cen­ter is tak­ing trips. Home Care Mat­ters fun­nel cake stand will be at the Crest­line Har­vest Fes­ti­val Sept. 20–22 and the Galion Okto­ber­fest Sept. 27–29.

Laura Smith reported for the United Way. Its next fundraiser will be at the Moose, Sept. 15 at 6 p.m. and will fea­ture the group Coco Beenos. Fundrais­ing is still a strug­gle, she said, but they have got­ten the sup­port of new businesses.