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Commission revives forgotten park committee
The Westland Area Commission is trying to revive the community-wide Friends of Westland Park committee in an effort to develop recreational facilities in the area. The committee has languished in the past several years, but Jo Ellen Locke, who serves as WAC’s Recreation and Parks Committee chair, wants to reactivate it and is looking for members from the community to serve on it. Locke told her WAC colleagues at the Sept. 15 meeting that she had spoken with Columbus Recreation and Parks officials and they “think it is time to revive the committee.” Locke said representatives of neighborhood groups, schools, churches, businesses and residents can serve on this committee. “We want to see a recreation center and park developed in this area,” she said. “The more people we get involved from the area the more chances we have of getting City Council moving,” she said. “That’s the way we can get things done.” The major work of the community-wide committee would be to lobby City Council in an effort to get a much-talked-about recreation center on the former Blauser property on West Broad Street across from the Kroger store. Because of the economy and the city’s financial situation, work toward developing that property into recreational facilities has slowed. The city would sell bonds to raise the funds to construct the building and is looking for assistance from Prairie Township for the operation. The development of a soccer field on that land has been pushed back since the Recreation and Parks Department didn’t have funds to pay workers, she said. Anyone wishing to serve on this community-wide committee can contact WAC Chairman Linda Pitts at the Westland Area Library. WAC’s next meeting will be Wednesday, Oct. 20, at 7 p.m. at Doctors Hospital.
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