August 5, 2022

Letter to the Editor – Crawford County Now

This is in response to Kurt Fankhauser’s recent letter which contains many misstatements and false accusations regarding the planned Norton Bicentennial Park.

Mr. Fankhauser makes several comments questioning whether Norton Bicentennial Park is privately owned, calling it a “quasi-public” park. To clarify, Norton Bicentennial Park is wholly owned by Norton Bicentennial, Inc. (Inc, as in incorporated, as in private), and are a registered 501-c-3 non-profit.  The City of Bucyrus has no interest or control of the property, none – because its private property.  The Mayor and his assistant Kelli Patterson sit on the Board but neither are officers.  By the way, Kelli Patterson is a dedicated public servant who chaired the City’s Bicentennial celebration – a huge success.  Anyone who thinks her time spent on the Bicentennial was somehow a mis-use of taxpayer funds is delusional.

We are being accused of not being transparent with are plans for the park.  Mr. Fankhauser must have forgotten the meeting he attended early in ’20 when he was Council President and owned the “Freddies” property. We reviewed the project with Mr. Fankhauser who said he would sell us the property – so that we could put a park there.  During ’20 and early ’21, we made at least two presentations to Council outlining our plans for the Bicentennial and the park.  In October of ’20, we held a public presentation at the Train Station.  Lastly, I would argue that simply by the sheer volume of social media chatter, most everyone knows what our plans are.

We followed all the procedures to seek the zoning change required to build a park.  If Mr. Fankhauser feels that strongly against a park, why didn’t he attend the hearing to publicly voice his concerns.

What is curious about the opposition to the project, is that none has come forth with a better idea.  By all accounts, the site is a blight on the north-end.  It’s easy to criticize, but where are the ideas?  And more importantly, what kind of person is opposed to parks?  What’s so inherently bad about a park?

Despite the naysayers, we have received strong support for the project from the community, including financial support.  We are moving forward with the project and with the gracious help from the County Landbank Commission, the old ice plant will come down this fall.  We welcome ideas that will transform this site from a blight into a shining star.

 

Randy Fischer, President

Norton Bicentennial, Inc.