MOUNT VERNON – Riverside Park visitors will get to enjoy a splash pad as Mount Vernon partners with Ariel Corp. and the Public Library of Mount Vernon & Knox County on the project.
“This splash pad was a top priority in our Parks Master Plan, and these two organizations recognized a need and worked to support the project," said City Councilmember Amber Keener, chair of the Parks and Land Committee. "It is inspiring to watch their commitment to the people of Mount Vernon."
She said the project has raised $1.7 million through private donations and partnerships.
Keener presented initial designs for the splash pad and an accompanying multipurpose facility at Monday’s City Council meeting in an initial step for the project. She said the splash pad was the top item requested by the community during the city’s parks master planning sessions two years ago.
Auditor Terry Scott said installing a splash pad somewhere in the city’s parks system has long been a topic of discussion, going back to the days of former Mayor Richard Mavis.
The donation for the splash pad will come from the Ariel Corp., and it will be named in honor of former Ariel Corp. President Hunter Wright, who lost his battle with cancer in 2021.
“So you’ll see the theme of the splash pad is a pirate theme, and we’ll be honoring him through his name on the arch over the entryway,” Keener said.
The splash pad will be fully ADA accessible, she said.
Jamie Lyn Smith-Fletcher, the development and writing program manager at the library, said the library’s board of trustees reviewed the green space for the Pavilion Building, as they are calling it, at a June 26 meeting. The library wants an expanded area for more family-friendly programs, inviting community members to enjoy educational, enrichment and entertainment events. As with all other library activities, these would be free to the public, she said.
“We’re really looking at doing some great stuff from exercise and dance classes to outdoor music lessons, maybe some foodways cooking, foraging, projects, public meetings," Smith-Fletcher said. "And of course, we’ll still be doing our author talks, and our author visits and book talks."
The youth summer reading program will expand its footprint in Riverside Park, which Smith-Fletcher said may favor the west end.
“Our plans have been in place for a while," she said. "They’ve been aspirational up to this point, but today, with your help, we hope to move forward one step closer to realization."
Solution sought for overgrown retention pond properties
Grass has grown as high as 6 feet tall at some retention ponds across Mount Vernon, resulting in residents and some council members asking why the city hasn’t mowed at these locations.
Councilmember Mel Severns said he received phone calls from some of his neighbors asking why the city hasn’t mowed the grass, which it has done in the past. He said the problem isn’t unique to the Compass Point area. Venture Drive in the Big Locks area has a retention pond that he said apparently is private, another at Gilchrist Estates is being built, and Laurelwood also has a retention pond.
“I think what I am a little bit, I guess, disappointed about is the word is that the decision not to mow these anymore, not to maintain them, as was done in 2022. And yet, no notice was sent to any of the residents,” Severns said.
City Engineer Brian Ball told him the neighborhoods have three options. They could organize and pay for the mowing themselves. Or they could set up a private stormwater management facility utility, in which a fee would be added to their utility bills to maintain their retention ponds. The third option would be for the city to mow around the retention ponds and issue fines to the residents for failing to meet city mowing standards.
Law Director Rob Broeren said as far back as his first years in the Law Director’s office, he told former then-Mayor Mavis and others the city should not mow on private property.
“I told them that that was not legal and not an appropriate use of city funding, but they kept doing it,” he said.
Broeren said he has been in several meetings with Ball, during which they told residents in some of those areas that they need to have plans to take care of their retention pond property.
City Councilmember Tammy Woods asked if the city had the equipment to care for these retention ponds.
“Obviously Mel doesn’t have the equipment, none of his neighbors have the equipment," Woods said. "Could we make a $1 agreement one time the city will take care of these and going forward?"
Keener said she thought that made sense because communication didn’t happen.
“This would be a good middle ground where we can find some compromise, get the area cleaned up and have time to create that agreement with the residents,” she said.
Annexed parcels given city zoning classification
The City Council rezoned to General Business four parcels that Mount Vernon annexed from Clinton Township.
The Municipal Planning Commission approved the zoning change for the parcels at 1104 West Gambier St., 120 and 130 South Norton St. on May 11.
State law requires the city to apply zoning to the properties.
“It’s what we’re required to do under the law to bring them in once they’ve been brought into the city, then we have to apply the city’s zoning rules to them,” Broeren said.
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