Park District approves credit card plan, property easement

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

The Craw­ford Park Dis­trict held its reg­u­lar monthly meet­ing on Nov. 15, at the Lowe Volk Park Nature Center.

CPD Direc­tor Bill Fisher first gave a sum­mary of monthly income and expenditures.

New busi­ness began with an update on park­ing lot light­ing. Pre­vi­ously the CPD looked into installing lights for the park­ing lot at Lowe Volk Park but orig­i­nal esti­mates from local com­pa­nies were high. Recently, Keiss Elec­tric con­tacted CPD about the project and it con­tin­ues talks with the company.

The CPD Com­mis­sion­ers approved Res. 22–2012 out­lin­ing the pro­ce­dures of using a pur­chas­ing card. Fisher explained that dur­ing the fis­cal year 2012 audit, the state audi­tor noted that the CPD did not have such a pol­icy and gave a model for guidelines.

The res­o­lu­tion lim­ited the users who would be able to use the card, as well as what type of pur­chases could be made. Pur­chases over $1,000 would need to be approved by the com­mis­sion­ers, and the state audi­tor rec­om­mended a max­i­mum limit of $5,000.

CPD will shop offers from credit card agen­cies to find one that will work for the organization.

Res. 24–2012 was a pay raise for Nat­u­ral­ist Josh Dyer. The orig­i­nal res­o­lu­tion called for a $1.15 raise, but CPD Advi­sor Emer­son Eck­stein moved to change the amount to $1.50. The res­o­lu­tion passed as amended, effec­tive Nov. 18.

Res. 25–2012 to trans­fer funds within the bud­get, to ensure end of the year expenses would be cov­ered, also passed.

The City of Bucyrus gave approval of the pro­posed ease­ment for the Lutz Drive prop­erty. The neigh­bor to the prop­erty wants to build a fence, which would go onto land owned by CPD. Com­mis­sion­ers passed Res. 23–2012 to approve the spe­cific terms and conditions.

The Hal­loween Fam­ily Fun Night event on Oct. 20 was suc­cess­ful, with over 500 peo­ple in atten­dance at the Nature Cen­ter. The Nature Art Exhibit is on dis­play at the Nature Cen­ter, which fea­tures the work of local artists, through Dec. 8.

Com­mis­sioner Richard Carpenter’s term of ser­vice expires at the end of the year. He agreed to another term, pend­ing appoint­ment by Pro­bate Judge Steven Eckstein.

In honor of the 10-year anniver­sary of the Nature Cen­ter, there will be an anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tion on Dec. 16, from 2–5 p.m. at Lowe Volk Park.

Friends of the Park held a meet­ing imme­di­ately fol­low­ing. A new book­case was pur­chased for the director’s office using grant funds, built by Mike Honaker of Wood Plus. Fisher explained that the old book­shelf had notice­able sagging.

Also, the group dis­cussed mak­ing alter­ations to the Ohio Min­er­als dis­play case at the Nature Cen­ter. In par­tic­u­lar, to replace the shelv­ing with glass (to make the items more vis­i­ble) and mak­ing a sec­ond win­dow so the case is more vis­i­ble when patrons enter the building.

Fisher said the $1700 esti­mate was too high, how­ever. As of the meet­ing, no action was to be taken.

The next meet­ing for the Craw­ford Park Dis­trict and Friends of the Park is Dec. 13, at 7:30 a.m. (inside the Nature Center).

Posted by Matt Echelberry on Nov 23 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.