Uniontown, Ohio Lions Club

What had become a burden for one Oldham group could become a boon for several others.

The North Oldham Lions Club is weeks away from finalizing its donation of Belknap Community Park in Goshen to the Oldham County Public Library and Oldham County Parks and Recreation.

Everyone involved envisions the park playing an important role in each group’s future: for the library, it will be the site for the soon-to-be second-largest branch in the county; for the parks department, it will be a new foothold in that part of the county; and for the Lions Club, it will be a place where the community can still gather while the club refocuses on its mission.

Nearby residents likely will see some changes soon to the land, with others following over the next few years.

“We haven’t had, as a county, a park in North Oldham,” said Oldham Judge-Executive David Voegele. “I hope to make a wow statement” with what it will become.

Oldham County Public Library officials, similarly, hope to bring something different to the area.

“We want to do something really spectacular,” said Susan Eubank, library director.

Lions Club involvement

The North Oldham Lions Club announced its plans in July to donate the 25-acre park on U.S. 42 near Ky. 1793 to the library and parks department.

The land was given to the club in 1971 by Edith Mary Clarke Belknap in memory of her deceased husband, William B. Belknap.

But in recent years it had become an “albatross,” said Joyce Fletcher, president of the North Oldham Lions Club. It was expensive for the club to maintain and almost ended the group.

Giving up the land will allow the club “to get out from underneath the financial burden that almost destroyed us a couple of times,” said attorney Galen Clark, the club’s secretary.

The club mulled a few options for the land, including selling or developing it, they said.

Then they were approached by library and parks officials and ultimately decided to give 6 acres to the library and 18 to the parks department.

These uses also complement the Belknaps, who had intended for the land to remain a park and were involved in the county’s first bookmobiles, Fletcher said.

The land is being donated at no cost, but the club has requested that it receive a gift in kind that could be used in its charities, she said.

“We felt this was a really nice marriage,” Fletcher added.

The club, which has about 30 members, will still be able to use the small building on the property for meetings and the park for fundraising.

It also will be able to focus more on its other charities, including the charities for blind and visually impaired people that Lions Clubs typically help.

“This constant fundraising to keep the park open has been a burden to members for years, and we lost members,” Clark said. “We now may get some of these people back.”

New library branch

The land donation will allow the county library to move out of its branch at the nearby Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve, Eubank said.

The Goshen branch will go from 3,185 square feet to at least 15,000 square feet, making the branch the second largest in the county, after the main branch in La Grange.

“This fell into our lap, and I just can’t express to the North Oldham Lions what a wonderful gift this is,” Eubank said.

The branch started at Creasey Mahan 32 years ago as a small lending library in a former dairy barn.

“The library just grew in such popularity, and people in that area were asking for so much more that eventually we took over the upstairs as well,” Eubank said.

The branch is not handicapped-accessible. And a few years ago in the midst of the recession, Creasey Mahan asked the library to start paying rent, which it has, she said.

“It’s a charming library, and certainly it’s well-loved,” Eubank said. “But really it has ceased to provide everything that the Goshen/Prospect area needs.”

The new branch likely will be adjacent to U.S. 42 on the park property and will provide a meeting area for that part of the county, she said.

“That is something we desperately need in the Goshen area,” Clark said.

It also will likely have an area for people with visual disabilities in honor of the Lions Clubs’ work in this area. This will include a special bank of computers and several books on tape and in Braille, Eubank said.

The branch also will include lots of light and “some of the newest and more exciting features that libraries are being built with now,” like movable shelves and a self check-out, she said.

The branch likely will cost $5.2 million to $5.4 million. Eubank has applied for a state library construction grant, which also helped officials build the main branch.

But the grants require a state budget appropriation of $2 million next fiscal year and $4 million the following year. Without the grant, Eubank said she doesn’t know if the library can be built.

“There are a lot of people in that area who are really, really excited about this library,” she said.

New county park

Parks officials intend for the park to remain “passive,” meaning that the focus will be on the open space and enjoying nature, such as through bike and walking trails.

But just because it’s passive, that doesn’t mean that changes won’t be made, said Tim Curtis, parks director.

One of the first tasks to tackle with the park, which will be the seventh for the county, will be completing a master plan, identifying possible additions and areas for improvement, he said.

He would like to pave the walking trail and upgrade and add more playground equipment.

“There are a lot of things we can do to spruce it up, really,” he said.

Curtis hopes that the Goshen and Prospect area takes ownership of the park.

“That side of the county has been where we’re mainly lacking” in park land, he said. “It should be a nice asset for the people of the county.”

What’s next

Oldham Fiscal Court unanimously voted Dec. 20 for Voegele to sign the closing documents to transfer of the property to the county.

Fletcher hopes to have the property turned over by the end of January.

Shortly thereafter, residents will likely notice the park being mowed more often, Curtis said. Mowing was a task the Lions Club struggled with completing on a regular basis, Clark said.

The parks department likely will wait until July, when next fiscal year’s budget starts, before making large purchases. But new playground equipment should be added in 2012, Curtis said.

Voegele and Curtis also intend to reach out to the community, asking groups to donate money for equipment, and include plaques, identifying donors, next to each piece.

Building a new library branch will take longer.

At the earliest and if funding is secured, construction could start in spring 2013 with the branch opening by the end of that year, Eubank said.

In the meantime, the Lions Club will identify new local charities to support, Fletcher said.

“We’ll be able to function as a thriving Lions Club and do more charitable giving,” she said. “In order for us to remain viable, it’s really important for us to have the support of the community.”