Myeerah Nature Preserve came into the conversation several times at the Bellefontaine Joint Recreation Disctrict’s board of trustees meeting on Tuesday, April 8, starting with the need to shut down the park for 48 hours due to the heavy rains over the weekend.
“Someone called the police department because of concern about overflow at the dam,” Kris Myers, parks superintendent, explained. “So we closed the preserve at noon Saturday until noon yesterday.”
Then, in new business, Myers presented two opportunities at the reserve to the board for approval. The first was a request from a production company planning to film part of a movie at Myeerah’s lake shelter house.
According to the production’s location scout, the scene will center around a party for the graduates of a drug program, which is the focus of the movie. The story follows a young man going through the court system in Logan County, specifically the Adult Recovery Court.
“I had a good conversation with the producer,” Myers said. “They’ll give us a $250 donation plus pay to rent the shelter. It’s minimal impact to us and a cool opportunity.”
He added they don’t want to “make a big deal” about it so the event doesn’t draw a crowd, and they aren’t releasing the date of the shoot.
The board approved the request.
Also in new business, Myers introduced a partnership between the parks department and Journey Nature School (JNS) to offer public education that focuses on exploring the great outdoors at Myeerah.
MacKenzie Fitzpatrick, JNS program director and city council liaison to the parks department, said they plan to start now and run though November. Some options they’re looking into are family hikes, morning yoga and nature scavenger hunts. The programming will be multi-generational.
Since it’s new, Fitzpatrick said they plan to try a variety of classes and “see what lands.” The partnership puts the parks department in charge of registrations with JNS handling “people management.” Some courses will be free while others will have a small fee as low as $2.
The board agreed to move forward with the partnership.
Sports Programs
“It is spring … I think … so we’re off and running,” Myers said regarding current sports programs. In Hi-Point baseball they have 214 participants with another 50 on tournament teams.
Softball has 139 total, mostly in the younger groups.
“Numbers-wise it’s consistent with where we’ve been the last few years,” Myers added.
Kids still have a couple weeks to register for the track team, which has 44 people signed up so far. The second year of the Chieftain Run Club at the Bellefontaine Intermediate School has 34 participants.
Registrations for this summer’s swim teams and for fall programs have started as well.
Other board news:
- Though the district’s financial situation is on track, they have noticed a “crazy high” electric bill at Blue Jacket Park and have determined the culprit is the athletic building there. Myers said they’re working with the Bellefontaine High School athletic department and school maintenance to get it under control.
“It’s their building but our electric bill,” Myers said. “We’ve recognized the problem and are working on it.” - Maintenance at the cemetery has officially transitioned from Joe Messner to Bryan Dalrymple.
- The department plans to start fencing repairs at Lewis Ratleff Park, hopefully next week as they prepare the ballfields for practices and games.
- Efforts to hire the needed staff for Hoffman Pool is going well with a “fair amount of applications.” Repair pieces for the slide structure are also under construction.
- The conceptual design for Harmon Park will be done this week. Next steps include changes to that followed by a public meeting before sending the final design out for bids.
“It’s not moving as fast as I’d like, but it is moving,” Myers said. - Work on Oakland Square, however, is moving faster. They’ve met with the playground supplier, which will provide three conceptual designs in time for a meeting on Tuesday, April 15.
- New pickleball courts at Mary Rutan Park are also coming along, with coating planned for the end of May, early June.
- Materials for the camera project at Rutan park will be ordered soon, and Myers anticipates having at least some of that ready by summer.
The next BJRD meeting is 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 6.