Big improvements are coming to Earl Thomas Conley Park. And it’s all thanks to a grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. But other big plans are on hold.
The $100,000 in grant money will be used for:
- Paving the walkways
- Resurfacing and striping the tennis courts
- Paving and restriping the basketball courts
- Repaving the parking lot
Of course, tennis courts and basketball courts are closed down due to Ohio’s Coronavirus shutdown order. Large groups of people congregating around basketball courts proved to be such a problem that parks across the state removed hoops.
County Commissioner Bryan Davis pointed out that the facilities are still closed. “All of this doesn’t mean that they’ll be open. But they’ll be nice and ready for play when the time comes.”
Davis said that the pathways had also been affected by flooding, so they needed the work.
However, one recreation project that has been put on hold was a proposed pump park. Commissioners had thought that Earl Thomas Conley Park’s West Side location close to Shawnee State Park made it a perfect location for a Pump Park.
Pump parks feature circuits of hills and banked turns and were originally designed for mountain and BMX bikers. They’re called pump tracks because bikes are moved by pumping body motion instead of pedaling. The courses are also popular with skateboarders and some are even designed to be wheelchair accessible.
The Scioto County Commissioners had been working with been working with Kristie Franklin from the Southern Ohio Mountain Biking Association to see if the park is something that might benefit the area.
Davis said the Coroanvirus crisis has changed all that. “The Pump Park is on hold until we can determine the fiscal damage done by the pandemic.”
.The $100,000 is grant money had already been allocated and could only be spent on recreation Commissioner Davis wanted to emphasize that the money came from a grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and not from Scioto County’s General Fund.
Davis says they may take the idea of a pump park up at a later date. “There will be a day when we won’t have COVID to deal with and life will go on.”