Parks Commission February Meeting

The Parks Commission met Wednesday and reviewed a lot of park event applications, caught up on business in Riverside and Grove Hill Parks, and heard a proposal from Dogwood Valley Garden Club.

Housekeeping

Anne Wombwell de Coningh was reelected chair, and the December meeting minutes were approved.

Park Event Applications

A year’s worth of Jaycees event applications were recommended to council, including the Easter Egg Hunt, Blossom Time, Trucks by the Falls, Oktubafest, Holiday Display, Lighting of the Greens, and Deck the Falls.

Methodist Church’s event applications for Easter Sunrise Service and Christmas Eve Service were also recommended to council.

Riverside Park

Several lights in the park are not working, and have not for some time. The outages have been reported, but there’s not much else the village can do about it as the poles are owned by FirstEnergy.

The village has not made any progress on the planned new pavilion, which has a $100,000 budget for design and construction in 2025.

Grove Hill Park

Angelotta Landscape Associates will begin landscaping once weather allows, in March or April.

Dogwood Valley Garden Club would like to donate $2,000 towards Grove Hill Park landscaping. Since council already approved $50,000 for engineering and construction in the 2025 budget I asked if this money would be in addition to that, or offset – and if the latter what happens to the $2,000 that was budgeted. The answer is still TBD.

Outdoor Musical Instruments

Dogwood Valley Garden Club has also proposed a donation for the purchase of outdoor musical instruments, and suggested Freenotes Harmony Park as a high-quality product. There was some discussion about if and where they should be installed, and we agreed to call a special meeting in Riverside Park to review locations. There is an installation by the same company in the playground behind Gates Mills Village Hall, and I plan to stop by and see them.