MANSFIELD — It was likely the best Richland County Park District budget planning session of Jason Larson’s career.
The district’s executive director, armed with the knowledge specific park district levy dollars will begin flowing in 2024, met Tuesday with county commissioners to discuss a trimmed down general fund request for next year.
The first financial fruits of the 0.65-mill, 10-year property approved by voters in May will not hit the local coffers until March or April since collection doesn’t begin in January.
The levy will generate about $1.6 million annually for the park district, which was formed in 1965. That’s about five times what the district has received from the county general fund in the past few years.
Larson admitted a bit of emotion during his session with commissioners, which officially kicked off the commissioners’ budget planning cycle for 2024.
Commissioners will meet with each department and elected officials during the next several weeks with the goal of completing a final spending plan by the end of the year.
“There are so many emotions,” Larson said. “It’s elation, it’s excitement, knowing the funding that we’re gonna have available to do things for the park district, for the community, that we’ve just not had the opportunity to do in the past.
“We’ve been so grateful for the county for their support for all these years. But there’s only a certain amount of money in the general fund every year and everybody’s fighting for their piece of the pie,” Larson said.
“Knowing that we have this extra funding available that we can absolutely set aside for certain things in our strategic plan that we’ve set up for the next 10 years, it’s just a good feeling.
“It is overwhelming at times to sit down and think about all the things that we’re going to be able to do. But we’re very, very excited,” Larson said.
One of the first projects for the district is working at the 183-acre Fleming Falls Nature Preserve to have the facility more opened to the public in 2024.
Since levy funds will not begin arriving until after the first quarter, Larson did ask commissioners for $174,331 from the general fund budget.
“We tried to truncate that back to divide it into those specific number of months,” he said.
“But we also added a little bit extra, primarily for a few additional part-time employees, and also some additional funding for Fleming Falls, because we know it’s very important to try to get that preserve (more) open as quickly as we can,” Larson told commissioners.
“We’re able to get some additional restrooms out there. We’ve been able to keep that facility open for the entire month of October. We’re hoping to be able to keep it open on a daily basis as much as we can, weather and staff permitting, until the levy money becomes available next year.
“It’s been a big hit. Everybody’s happy they can get out there, especially during this time of year and everybody can see the foliage and the scenery,” Larson said.
Another goal with levy funds, according to the director, is to finally see a “major re-pavement of the (B&O) Bike Trail,” a project the district has been working on with Richland County Regional Planning.
“Knowing that we’re gonna have extra funding available for projects is going to allow us to do more work with the donations and matching grant monies and things of that nature,” he said.
Extending the bike trail near Bellville is also on the district’s radar.
“The grand plan would be to extend the bike trail down along the same side as the dog park, along the road and then do a 90-degree cut beyond Spayde Road.
“That way you’re not going to have to worry about that angle crossing. You’re not going to have to worry about people coming in and of Spayde Road.
“You would be crossing over (Ohio) 97 south of Spayde Road. You could see Spayde Road, you could see well into Bellville and down towards the restaurants and it would make a much quicker crossing there,” Larson said.
