By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
Two of the three parties involved in installing a detention pond on the county fairgrounds may have been reluctant, but the plans were approved by the Bucyrus Service Committee Wednesday evening.
The matter was brought up at the last Bucyrus City Council meeting. During the reading of Service/Safety Director Jeff Wagner’s report, councilman Bruce Truka noted that the Service Committee, which he chairs, had not received any reports on the pond despite the fact that the city would be going to bid for the project before the end of the year. That prompted a special joint meeting with the Service and Finance committees complete with engineer Bruce Brandstetter of Brandstetter Carroll Inc.
“It’s exciting to see a joint regional solution to it,” Brandstetter said as he discussed the project that brought the city of Bucyrus, Crawford County officials, and the Crawford County Fair Board together. “It’s a public, public partnership.”
The detention pond will be constructed in the southwest corner of the fairgrounds property and would be anywhere from a few feet to 11 feet deep. The plans include moving the fairground’s Southern Avenue gate from its current place to directly across from Robinhood Drive. The city will mill some of the drive and put down stone. The storm sewer will be extended to Sherwood Drive and changes will be made at the Bucyrus Area YMCA.
The changes to the storm sewer, which will include roughly 2,500 feet of pipe, will pull water from Trillium and the YMCA and force it into a ditch along the north side of East Southern Avenue before depositing it into the detention pond.
Trillium currently has plans in place to add a parking lot in front of its property in the spring. Brandstetter said he is working with them to coordinate the project.
Brandstetter pointed out that the county was providing the property to the city. An added benefit would be the ability to stockpile dirt dug out for the pond rather than haul it away, allowing the county to take it out as needed.
Part of the agreement for the detention pond would be a discount for the fair board on the storm water from that area of the property.
“In exchange for letting us use the property and alleviate the flooding of our residents, we gave them a discount on storm water as part of the negotiations,” Mayor Jeff Reser confirmed. “We gave them what we could.”
When questioned about the cost of the project, Brandstetter believed it could be between $500,000 and $700,000. He cautioned that the estimates have not yet been updated, but they would be going out to bid in January.
Three members of the Crawford County Fair Board – President Blaine Rowlinson, Secretary Rebecca Starner, and Treasurer Tom Laughbaum – attended the meeting and expressed their concerns.
“There’s events at the fairgrounds that we have (with) the parking lot probably 80 percent full. Now we’re wondering where we’re going to park everybody,” Rowlinson said.
The pond will go in the fairground’s southern parking area, reducing the parking area by at least a third.
“Our north parking lot is already full,” Rowlinson added. “During the fair, that is probably our busiest parking lot. We have a few big events that fill up that south parking lot. There’s no way we’ll park cars down in the retention pond.”
That comment drew a few chuckles, but Rowlinson did not seem happy with the matter as he noted that people would be in it, even if it rained.
Other than the existing fence, which runs along Southern Avenue and Whetstone Street, there will not be a fence around the detention pond to keep people out. Reser confirmed that the matter has already been greenlighted by the county’s insurance agent and Wagner noted the city will mow the inside of the pond.
Starner and Rowlinson later voiced concerns over injuries that could occur, especially when visitors enter the fairgrounds to play Pokémon Go. Laughbaum added that in the past they were also able to earn a little money by getting hay from the grassy area, which will no longer be the case.
Though the Service Committee passed a motion to approve the project, Councilman Dan Wirebaugh expressed discontent with the plan with many of his points being echoed by the fair board members.
“I don’t like it,” Wirebaugh said, with councilwoman Wanda Sharrock chiming in her agreement. “It’s passed and everything, but I just want to make this point . . . we could not get them (the county) to even talk to us about a retaining pond until Trillium wanted to put a parking lot in.”
“I would agree with that,” Starner said.
Rowlinson added the position the fair board has on the project: “We’re not for this.”
“I don’t like it,” Wirebaugh added, “but as a member of city council I have to do what’s best for the city and we need this for the city and this is probably the only way we’re going to get it.”
The Service Committee also authorized the city to go to bid for the May/Crawford/Perry storm separation project. The Finance Committee is expected to approve the spending of the Ohio Public Works Commission grant at a meeting prior to the Dec. 20 Bucyrus City Council meeting.