SHELBY — Downtown Shelby’s Black Fork Commons park is welcoming its newest addition: an amphitheater.
The new structure is part of the second phase of the downtown park’s development, according to Dave Keinath, a nine-year member of Shelby’s Park Board and a two-time past president. The first phase of the park was completed in 2015.
“We have a good board and we’re all really excited about making this the focal point of Shelby’s downtown,” Keinath said. “We’ve lost a downtown center for retail, and I don’t think we’re ever going to see that back. But this would maybe replace that.”
The amphitheater is currently being installed at the park’s already-existing, 50-foot diameter concrete circle. Keinath said the new amphitheater will be raised at least 6 feet in the air to comply with floodplain regulations, and will feature a 40-foot portable stage compliant with regulations the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Construction of the amphitheater will cost approximately $174,400 and is entirely paid for through outside sources including a $115,000 grant from the Richland County Foundation, a significant contribution from the late Lesli Barkdull Neal, and money through the Park Board from a previous grant.
“We have not taken any of the levy money for this,” Keinath said. “This has all been contributions and board members writing grants. We’ve made a commitment as a board that we’re not going to spend levy money – that money is operational.”
Architect Dan Seckel of The Seckel Group came up with the design for the amphitheater, and Finnegan Construction is following through with Seckel and the Park Board’s vision.
The project comes as part of an innovative solution to a 100-year flooding problem in Shelby that has garnered national recognition. Development downtown is limited due to the Black Fork of the Mohican River splitting the city, placing Shelby squarely in the floodplain.
Shelby’s downtown business and residential area was dumped under water in 2007 when Floodplain Manager Joe Gies said a “500-year-flood” hit the town. Shelby and the Black Fork Commons park concept was later featured in a FEMA case study called, “Shelby, Ohio: The Economic Upside of Mitigation.”
The city of Shelby and the Park Board originally broke ground on the three-acre area between West Main and Black Fork Street in August 2014. The first phase of the project was completed in May 2015 and included a town center loop as well as various trails and walkways across the green space; Keinath told Richland Source in 2015 the first phase cost a little more than $400,000.
The new amphitheater, scheduled to be complete within six months, will complete the second phase of the Black Fork Commons downtown park. The third phase will be construction of heated bathrooms downtown, a project Keinath estimates to cost approximately $165,000. He hopes to parlay excitement from the new amphitheater into a fundraising effort for the bathroom.
“We need a nice-sized bathroom so we can have some larger events down there,” Keinath said. “We’re hoping to make it a 12-month park, and I think that’s important for its location.”
With the addition of the amphitheater, Keinath and the Park Board hopes to host activites like live music, the annual chili-cook off, screening movies in the park in the summer, and even tailgating before Shelby High School football games in the fall.
“It’s been a long process,” Keinath said. “We’ve gone through so many dreams and transformations, but I think we’ve got a good, solid plan to move forward on.
“The community needs something to remain a community,” he said. “This, we hope, is what does it.”
