Coldwater, Fort gain large state recreation grants

FORT RECOVERY - The villages of Fort Recovery and Coldwater have been awarded substantial Ohio Department of Natural Resources grants to improve the quality of life by adding outdoor recreational amenities.

At an awards presentation in the Fort Recovery High School Community Room on Monday afternoon, ODNR Director Jim Zehringer presented checks to officials from Coldwater and Fort Recovery, as well as Greenville, Arcanum and the Darke County Park District.

ODNR, according to Zehringer, administers federal and state grant programs, including the Recreational Trails Program, Clean Ohio Trails Fund and NatureWorks, all of which are very competitive.

Fort Recovery received a $120,000 Recreational Trails Program grant to help fund a recreational trail around Community Park, while Coldwater took home a $49,406 NatureWorks grant to help purchase more than 30 ares of land for the proposed Coldwater Nature Center.

Work will begin this spring to install a trail around Fort Recovery's Community Park.

"We've been talking about this ever since the pool was built in 1984. It was actually part of the original design to put a recreational trail in," Fort Recovery Village Administrator Randy Diller said. "Over the years, of course, other things took precedent."

In recent years, the idea of a recreational trail, Diller said, has become a high priority. Just recently many respondents to a community survey indicated the town needs a safe place to walk.

The project is estimated to cost $200,000 and includes a $50,000 donation from the Kathy Staugler family. It will be named the Paul Staugler Memorial Recreational Trail in memory of the announcer who was known as "the voice of the Fort Recovery Indians" and "a great, great, citizen," Zehringer said.

"This will be a loop around Community Park, about three-quarters of a mile long," Diller said.

It will be the second part of a planned four-phase project to connect the downtown area to the parks.

"This is going to connect our downtown using newly constructed sidewalks that go from the downtown all the way to the parks," Diller said, noting the walkway will be handicap accessible.

Phase one - completed during street projects over the last few years - included the installation of sidewalks on Wayne and Milligan streets to the pool, Diller said.

"Phase three will then loop it back to the baseball field, and then from the baseball field phase four will take it back up town," he said.

Coldwater officials will use their $49,406 toward eventually acquiring land to establish a more "passive" park to complement the village's 40-acre Memorial Park, according to village administrator/engineer Eric Thomas.

"Our project is in its infant stages. We're looking at increasing park area in the village of Coldwater," Thomas said. "We're looking at long-term planning and this grant's going to go a long way with helping secure more ground."

Earlier this year, Coldwater officials said they were trying to leverage funds from multiple sources to purchase 30 acres for a new park. The location and owner of the land contiguous to the village has not yet been revealed but officials would like to add a park for passive recreation such as walking.

Zehringer said many communities in western Ohio are acting to improve the quality of life by enhancing outdoor amenities.

"These kids nowadays that are moving from town to town, the millennials, and even seniors like myself, you look for things to do outside, whether it be kayaking, paddleboarding, canoeing, hiking, running, bicycling; anything that has to do (with the) outdoors improves the quality of life," he said.

Zehringer, a Fort Recovery native, said he did not learn of the grant winners until Wednesday when he signed the checks

"And they keep any kind of politics, any kind of persuasion out of the award winners. This is very competitive and the last thing they want is a bureaucrat or a politician getting involved," Zehringer said.

Other communities awarded grants on Monday afternoon were Greenville, $24,750 to install LED lightpoles and construct a paved trail; Arcanum, $2,929 for balldiamonds and parking lot improvements; and Darke County Park District, $225,000 for a nearly one-mile asphalt trail to link Darke County's trails to other systems, including Great Miami River Recreational Trail System, Interstate-75 corridor and the Cardinal Greenway in Indiana.