Question: The parking lot next to the basketball courts in Maple Lake Park in Mansfield has been used as staging areas for the gas company. Are they paying the City of Mansfield anything to use this park? It’s full of trucks, stones and other equipment. The parking lot is not useable by the public.
MANSFIELD — A company doing work on behalf of Columbia Gas of Ohio has been using a parking lot at Maple Lake Park in Mansfield since the spring of 2023, according to Public Works Director Louis Andres.
Global Energy Partners has been installing new gas lines in the city on behalf of Columbia Gas and obtained permission to use the parking lot just north of the basketball courts on the east end of the park.
Andres, hired in January when new Mayor Jodie Perry took office, said the current administration inherited the situation arranged when former Mayor Tim Theaker was in office.
“It’s not unusual to allow such staging areas,” he said, “especially when it’s benefitting local residents (with new gas lines). It’s the kind of infrastructure and growth activity we like to see.
“We just don’t want to make it long term,” he said.
Andres said he spoke with Parks and Recreation Supt. Mark Abrams and it appears the company will vacate the parking lot by Nov. 1.
“I brought it to Mark’s attention and told him we needed a deadline. We have some projects we want to do there,” Andres said.
He said the company did not block playground equipment or the tennis and basketball courts at the park off Arlington Avenue.
Andres said the company will make a donation to the city parks when its work is complete. The amount has not been determined, he said.
“It’s a donation. We can’t ask or tell them what it’s going to be,” he said.
(These photos were taken Thursday morning in a parking lot at Maple Lake Park near the basketball court on the east end of the park.)
