Carroll County residents will be able to rejoice and enjoy a new park in the Carrollton Village this fall.
The Village of Carrollton will be obtaining 9.8 acres of land from the Carrollton Exempted Village School District. The land is a former athletic practice field located along Fifth Street. Many area athletes have practiced or competed at the “Fifth Street Fields,” but now the property will house play equipment for children.
“They used it for physical education classes, junior high football and track practices and there’s a softball field there that is currently maintained by the Carroll County Youth League where they play some softball there still and we’re going to continue to keep that field as we’re going to take over the maintenance of it,” said Village Administrator Mark Wells.
Wells said it was over a year ago the Village contacted the school board and asked if they could take control of the property to create another outlet for the area’s youth.
“We went to the school and asked them what their plans for that piece of ground was and it’s about nine and a half acres and if there could be a possibility that the village could develop that into a park as it has been run down, hadn’t been used, it’s been properly mowed and maintained and the baseball field had been used but the rest of it other than mowing has not had a lot of use,” he said. “We had some further talks and it became clear that the school board was going to be in agreement and Dr. [Dave] Quatrochhi.”
The plans for the future park include a $100,000 piece of park equipment located on the infield and a new asphalt walking track. Wells said it will allow children to play and their parents to walk around the track and keep an eye on them. A soccer field will also be included on the chunk of land – space permitting.
“My vision is that the kids can be playing on the equipment, the parents can be walking and it’s all very safe,” Wells said. “They can see their kids and I just think it’s a great piece of property for that.”
Wells says the Village hopes to have the deed in their possession sometime in the month of July.
He says they are talking with AEP electric about installing more lighting around the field/track.
The $100,000 piece of playground equipment was purchased nearly two years ago and remained in the crate – it was purchased through a grant and the village paid 50%. The goal was to allow about 30 community members to install the equipment, but because of concern of spreading Covid, the Village is applying for another grant that would allow it to be professionally installed.
There are other parks located within the village, but they don’t fit the needs for all children- including those with special needs or disabilities. The new playground equipment is a piece of “All Ability” equipment.
The other parks are Kiddie Land (located in on Park Ave and Main St) and the other park is Ann Green Park which is out of the way for most in town residents.