The Marion County Park District voted Thursday to ask Marion County voters to approve a 0.4 mill levy on the May 6, 2014 primary ballot to support parks, trails, and preserves throughout Marion County. The levy income would be split between the countywide park district and smaller, community parks to help with maintenance and matching grant funds.
“This would only cost the owners of an $85,000 home a dollar a month” said park board member Carol Bowman. “With this small sum, we can greatly benefit our community.”
The District Trustees say the levy is unique in that it would benefit parks throughout Marion County, rather than just those owned by the park district. The proposed ballot language states that the county park district must provide 25% of the annual tax revenues as grants to other parks throughout Marion County, including the City of Marion, villages, and townships for acquisition, development, and improvement of parks and recreational facilities.
“We know that voters want local officials to work together. In fact, two of the action steps in Marion’s EnVISIONing the 21st Century Community Plan were to ‘Explore opportunities for collaboration between the various park districts and organizations’ and to ‘Identify a reliable source of operating funds for parks’. We feel that this proposal is a big step in that direction,” said park board member Dan Sheridan.
Park board member Janine Williams added, “There are plenty of grants that parks can apply for, but they usually require matching funds. Our goal is to provide those villages and townships, as well as the city parks, with funds that they can use to improve safety, purchase equipment, and perhaps build new parks.”
Grant recipients would be selected by a committee made up of representatives from Marion County villages and townships, as well as the City of Marion, using agreed-upon criteria.
The levy would produce an estimated $445,164 per year. Half of the revenue would be used for capital needs of the park district, such as expanding the Marion Tallgrass Trail and possible future recreational trails, improving current park district properties (Tallgrass Trail, Terradise Nature Preserve, Myers Woods, Greenspur, and the Caledonia Nature Preserve), and adding future parks as opportunities occur.
The remaining 25% of the revenue would go to operations of the county park district.
“The county budget has been so tight that the park district has been an all-volunteer organization for nearly three years now”, said Sheridan.
Park board member Phil Reid added “Not only do volunteers mow the grass in our parks, they even pay for the gas. We have a small tractor that we use for mowing, but we don’t have a way to get the tractor to some of our more remote parks. We actually drive the tractor from Marion out to the Tallgrass Trail.”
“Our Birds of Prey program was very successful,” said Sheridan. “Delaware County and Crawford County have wonderful programs like this in their county parks on a regular basis. We’d like to be able to hire a park professional who can offer those same opportunities to our residents. We’d also like to maintain our parks, and have a park vehicle.”
“We’ve turned down several opportunities to add parks to our system because we don’t have any employees and we don’t have sufficient funds to maintain the parks,” added Sheridan. This is a chance to turn a negative into a real positive that will make Marion County a more attractive place to live, visit, and start a business.”
The Marion County Park District was formed in 1995, when Trella Romine suggested to the Marion County Commissioners that a park district be set up to accept her donation of the land that is now Terradise. The commissioners supported this idea, and, after public hearings the, Marion County Probate Court established the park district and appointed volunteer park commissioners. The park district is a separate political entity from the Marion County government, but receives financial support from the county commissioners as the county budget allows.
The park district currently consists of five parks: The Marion Tallgrass Trail, Terradise Nature Preserve, Myers Woods, Greenspur, and the Caledonia Nature Preserve.
The park district is governed by five volunteer board members: Dan Sheridan, Carol Bowman, Janine Williams, Phil Reid, and Susan Bruder. Volunteer support is provided by the Friends of Prairie Parks, chaired by Harry Condry.
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