ARCHBOLD WEATHER

Park Board Did Discuss Buying Lots In Front Of Woodland Park


Jennifer Kidder, director of Archbold Parks and Recreation, said the Archbold Park Board did discuss purchasing lots fronting South Defiance Street where trees were recently torn down to make way for self-storage buildings.

“Purchasing the property was briefly discussed by the park board. But, I can say that the conversations were minimal,” Kidder said.

Steve Kauffman, Archbold, confirmed plans he will build two buildings, each 40×180 feet, on the western half of the 3.769-acre lot west of Woodland Park.

A crew began taking down several pine trees on the lots, Monday, April 5. People began commenting over the loss of the trees and the selfstorage project on Facebook.

Never Owned

Lots at the west end of Woodland Park were never owned by either the village of Archbold or Park Board.

In an email message to this newspaper, Kidder said, “The lots in question were for sale when we purchased the park property” in 2001.

“When we purchased the land for the park, our purchase was for 60 acres of land, encompassing 40 acres of property to develop for actual park use and the 20 acres of the woods.

“The cost for those four lots (along South Defiance Street) that remained for sale for many years would have cost us more to purchase than the entire park.

“At the time, when you looked at those numbers as well as the cost for the property and then add on development costs, it was definitely not a wise use of taxpayer money. Looking at it today, I don’t know how anyone at the time would have done anything else differently.

“We knew all along that it was zoned for commercial use. I know that I personally thought we would likely see something along the lines of an ice cream place go in on that property with the park traffic for so many months of the year.

“In all honesty, I never thought those lots would sit empty for as long as they did.”

No Negative Impact

Kidder said Woodland Park “is not going to be negatively affected by the development.

“The park is in place and will still be used by people.

“We are not in a position where we have to change what we do at the park. We didn’t lose any abilities which we currently have.

“In all reality, we will just look at a building instead of trees.

“I am the first one to tell anyone that we need to do what we can to maintain our natural resources. And we can’t make more land. It’s not possible.

“But, I also think it is important to note that the small bit of acreage that we are talking about wasn’t likely to change the full dynamic of the park– especially since the realistic and feasible ability for us to purchase that property did not occur until the park development was complete.”

Out Of Our Hands

“Do people want to look at storage units? Probably not, but it was really out of our hands,” she said.

“Would it have been nice to have the additional land? Absolutely. Was it needed? Unfortunately, no.

“And our development of Woodland Park is in place already. We definitely weren’t going to put an athletic field or playground close to a state highway.

“In a perfect world, if money were no issue, would we scoop that up? Sure, I would like to think so.

“But, there are a few things to take into consideration.

“First, since the property was purchased we have been through a recession and major downturn in the economy. We were affected like many businesses, organizations, and individuals.

“We took on the development of 60 acres and created an amazing park that is visited by people from all over. We are paying for that still– it’s good debt.

“It has benefited people for years and will continue to do so for decades down the road.

“We are so blessed as a community to have the park acreage that we have in our park system.”