By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The Bowling Green Parks and Recreation Board took a farewell tour of the Veterans Building in City Park Tuesday evening.
Members pointed out items that won’t be missed when the building is torn down later this year – the carpeted walls, lack of ADA restrooms, buckling floors, water damage, inadequate electric, lack of air conditioning and crumbling block walls. There is no storage space, so tables and chairs are stacked in the open. There are holes that let varmints inside – including a skunk that visited during a recent rental.
The demolition of the Veterans Building, Girl Scout Building and the Depot Building are all scheduled for mid-August. Then construction will begin on a new City Park building, which will have adequate space for programming, storage, air conditioning, ADA accessibility, and an attractive design that reflects the historic nature of City Park.
On Tuesday evening, Parks and Recreation Director Kristin Otley reported to the board that requests for qualifications for the new building are due this week.
“That will be very exciting,” she said.
Though the aging Veterans Building has outlived its usefulness, Otley said the city still wants to pay homage to the role it played in the community – as a place where families celebrated birthdays, organizations held chili-cook-offs, and residents tried to jazzercise off some pounds.
So Otley is asking that as local residents do their spring cleaning, if they come upon photographs of those special moments at the Veterans Building, that they share those photos with the Parks and Recreation Department.
“So many life moments happened in this building,” Otley said. And she is hoping some of the old photos can be displayed in the new building.
Otley asked that a couple park board members volunteer to look over the architectural plans for the new building as the project nears.
“You are representatives of the community and have different takes on things,” she said.
Once the buildings are torn down in mid-August, the plan is for the new building to get framed in before winter. “They’ll be able to work through the nasty weather,” Otley said.
If all goes according to plans, the building will be completed by the spring of 2019.
“I think it’s doable,” Otley said.
In other business, the park board:
- Re-elected Jeff Crawford as president.
- Learned the annual membership breakfast will be May 19, at 9 a.m., in the Rotary Nature Center in Wintergarden Park.
- Approved Jodi Anderson as a new member of the park foundation board of trustees.
- Heard that the newly renovated nature center is open again for rentals.
- Learned from naturalist Chris Gajewicz that the second annual seed exchange was well attended. “Garden people get pretty excited this time of the year,” he said.
- Heard from Gajewicz that recent programs on Bigfoot and birding were hits.
- Got a report from Ivan Kovacevic, recreation coordinator, about new programming including an “escape” event, and about the success of a recent Day Off School program. The annual Adult Egg Scramble is set for April 6, and the Super Hero obstacle course event is partnering with Wood County foster care program on April 21.
- Learned the parks and recreation summer brochure should be available electronically by the end of the week.
